Astro Hacker News - The era of 15GB free Gmail storage is ending

magicalhippo |next [-]

I'm guessing 90%+ of my Gmail inbox could be deleted without me batting an eye, I just can't be bothered because the UX t do so is horrible.

Who on earth thought deleting 50 mails at a time is sufficient in the days of multi-GB inboxes?

Leherenn |root |parent |next [-]

It's also annoying you cannot delete the attachments whilst keeping the text of the email. It's all or nothing.

lifestyleguru |root |parent [-]

You both guys are today's lucky 10000! You can export entire gmail history with takeout and import the history locally to thunderbird. You can even make backup of it. Then delete everything and anything you want from the online gmail. Select 50 items at a time with "Select all" and delete page by page, go guys you can make it!

jordiburgos |root |parent |next [-]

Good solution. Then, how can I backup the Thunderbird store/DB/whatever so I can access it later?

lifestyleguru |root |parent [-]

Backup the thunderbird profile, it's just a directory. Seriously why my parent comment is downvoted FFS?! WTF? You are receiving free advice while others would sell you paid subscription for it.

magicalhippo |root |parent |previous [-]

I'm using Thunderbird for the accounts I care about. I know I could hook into Gmail using IMAP. Just sayin' the Gmail UX for deleting is horrible and Thunderbird existing is no excuse for that.

lifestyleguru |root |parent [-]

If you don't care enough about your gmail to bother setting up thunderbird for it, why keeping it at all.

znpy |root |parent |previous [-]

> Who on earth thought deleting 50 mails at a time is sufficient in the days of multi-GB inboxes?

whoever profits on using your data for advertising services like

rokkamokka |next |previous [-]

I remember the magic that was 1GB (and "infinite" because it kept slowly growing) email storage back when Hotmail gave you maybe 5MB. Crazy to think it was over 20 years ago.

marysol5 |root |parent |next [-]

When GMail launched, there was loads of wrappers people wrote to use it as a file store instead of E-Mail, because it was so much for the time....

But now E-Mail, like the rest of the internet is so damn heavy, 1GB gets eaten up in no time.

znpy |root |parent |next [-]

i remember using gspace as a firefox plugin to store stuff in my gmail account. it's probably still there in my 20 years old emails.

funnily enough, if it was possible to find the source code of that plugin somewhere, i could probably tell some LLM to cook up some tool to find all such emails and extract the files.

kotaKat |root |parent |previous [-]

GMailFS! The Google File System! Such a novel idea at the time to let Google back up all our stuff...

... and then 20 years later I wonder how much of a mistake that was.

dotcoma |root |parent |next |previous [-]

I got my first gmail account in April 2004 (!)

Now it’s clearly time to move on.

hyperman1 |root |parent |previous [-]

I remember them releasing it on an 1st of april l, we were all: Great joke. Then it turns out they were serious. That was some smart marketing.

ivell |next |previous [-]

It is more of an attempt to get real world IDs.

Yesterday I was forced to enter phone number for first time for "login verification". I didn't request any 2FA. They also made it clear they would save the number. Alternative was not logging in. Probably a A/B testing attempt.

pierre3000 |root |parent |next [-]

Well, "don't be evil" is over.

Android is over (with the next major version there will be no sideloading). And with all those new feeling-based laws, "hate speech" and snitch sites (Meldestellen) the internet is basically over (or you need legal protection insurance and loads of free time).

The Internet will die off, just like TV, BTX, mail boxes, BBSes, and all the stuff before.

I did adjust my hobbies and passions accordingly, I have now a workshop and a garden.

I decided to use appliances (for example feature phone and Garmin navigation system and reMarkable) and real services (bank clerk in an actual bank).

A smartphone is a spy device, a ad screen, and a single point of failure.

For email look into stalwart and host it for yourself.

rkagerer |root |parent |next |previous [-]

It's stupid how phone numbers have become a proxy indicator for "is a distinct and legitimate human". Do they enforce this in all geographies or are there still places in the world where Internet is available but cellphones and phone numbers aren't common?

pndy |root |parent [-]

It is stupid but today that makes sense in places where SIM card requires registration by full first and last name - which is majority of the world. You have to register SIM otherwise phone will be working with emergency services only. And that gives the possibility of identifying you by your phone number on whatever service, platform that asks you to provide phone number for security reasons.

I really don't want to spread gloom here but last 15 years felt like stripping down anonymity by both law and social engineering. And now we're facing even more direct online verification under the classic pretense of "think of the children". The Wild West period of the Internet is over and what soon will arrive should concern us all.

ChrisRR |root |parent |next |previous [-]

I think it's more likely that it's to limit people getting unlimited storage with multiple accounts by limiting it to 15gb per phone number

ivell |root |parent [-]

> Google has confirmed that it's testing a 5GB storage limit for some new Gmail users, unless they add their number.

If 5GB users don't have to enter phone, then I think they will not be able to stop unlimited usage anyway.

ChrisRR |root |parent [-]

Yeah. They'll never be able to stop it, but I wouldn't be surprised if just adding a little extra roadblock makes a measurable difference in their storage costs

luotuoshangdui |root |parent |previous [-]

They forced me to enter a phone number many years ago.

sloped |next |previous [-]

It seems fairly obvious that the "identity" portion of this is more important than the actual cost of providing the storage. Though maybe more folks than I imagine can hit the 5GB limit quickly. I have emails dating back to 2008 and just calculated I am only using 8.5GB. I keep everything so getting down to 5GB would be a hassle more than a challenge.

I would argue that Google really wants to earn your storage dollars. Their constant notifications on my device warning me I was low on space is what drove me to Immich.

andOlga |next |previous [-]

I am extremely confused by the fact that... you basically can't make a Google account without providing a phone number anymore, can you? The article even says as much. So what is this? In what scenario would this actually manifest?

mcraiha |root |parent [-]

If you have Android tablet with WLAN only connection I assume you can still create a new Google account from setup wizard without phone number. (I have not tested this)

ktpsns |next |previous [-]

I wonder why they quit their strategy of (practically) "infinite email storage". Compared to other data sources, after identifying hand-written E-Mails and attachment this would give them superior access to high quality LLM training material. I assume Mail content and GDrive file content still superior to what you find in the general "open" web.

Maybe they don't want to be evil anymore? ;-)

i67vw3 |next |previous [-]

I recently got free 5TB storage for one year with the Google AI Pro plan, as I had ported my SIM card to another carrier, new carrier had some sort of partnership with Google.

It was 2 TB originally, but fews days later on they just increased it to 5TB. Just bonker level of storage (for free).

lifestyleguru |next |previous [-]

> Users can “unlock” the full 15GB of free storage by adding a phone number to their account.

On my last login to twenty years old Gmail account I was really surprised how it's possible to dismiss the "enter your phone number" screen, while other email providers deman 3d face scan and bank statements. Well, here we are...

On the other hand I have twenty years old Gmail account which works without them knowing my phone number, and access codes exported maybe decade ago and they are still valid. For a service I paid nothing, that's beyond impressing.

edge_trader_41 |next |previous [-]

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486sx33 |next |previous [-]

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mwelpa |previous [-]

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