Fordham students will have to adjust to a new storage limitation being implemented to their Fordham Google accounts this fall. Beginning on Oct. 30, 2024, students will be limited to 10GB of storage on their school Google accounts. This cap is a disappointing shift from the current system with unlimited storage, and will require students to clean up their drive to keep their accounts running smoothly.
At the end of 2021, Google announced that it would no longer be providing schools with unlimited storage, a service it had granted since 2006. Instead, schools will be forced to limit students, faculty and staff to strict data constraints on their institutional email accounts, taking effect on Oct. 30, 2024. Not quite the Halloween surprise we wanted.
The new guidelines are extremely frustrating for students who want to use their Fordham account for creative work.
If you are over the storage limit, which includes any files saved to a fordham.edu Google Drive, Google Photos or Gmail account, you will not be able to upload any new files, documents or photos to Google, or use Google’s suite of collaborative creative tools. This means you will not be able to edit Google Docs, Slides or any other cloud file services. It is important for students to maintain their storage quotas so that they can continue to use their Google account for all the essential functions that every student needs.
The new guidelines are extremely frustrating for students who want to use their Fordham account for creative work. I am a new media and digital design student, and I work a lot in video production. These new limitations will make it almost impossible for me to work collaboratively through my Fordham account since video files are so large. I routinely work on projects with multiple files over 10GB each. However, I will be begrudgingly reallocating my files in order to maintain functionality on my account. Here’s how I’m planning to make it work, and a few other options for Fordham students to consider to ensure they stay below the data limit.
First, check your storage. You can find your storage usage in your Google account. Make sure you’re logged into your Fordham account. If you are using less than 10GB of storage then the new limit will not affect your account, just be mindful of how much space you have to spare so you do not accidentally breach the limit. If you are over 10GB, you have some time to reduce your storage usage before Oct. 30, but it is best to begin that process as soon as possible.
There are a few different types of files that take up storage space on a Google account. These are Google Drive files, Google Suite documents, emails and Google Photos.
You can save Google Drive files by downloading them onto your computer or an external storage device, like a flash drive or hard drive. These are the best way to move and access files on any device, because they do not require internet access, cloud storage or even computer storage space to use on a different device.
The most disappointing adjustment for me is losing my Google Photos storage. For the last few years, every photo and video I’ve taken on my phone has been saved on my Fordham Google Photos account, which adds up to over 125GB of data.
You can also use a different cloud storage account, like a personal Google account, iCloud, DropBox or another file hosting service. This is a good option if you need to share files with other people or do not want to worry about keeping a hard drive handy whenever you want access to your files. Many of these services have free limited storage plans or paid subscriptions which offer more extensive storage.
Once you’ve transferred your files, delete them from your Fordham Google account to clear your storage space. It is also a good idea to look through your drive and delete any old files you do not need anymore which are taking up excess space.
The most disappointing adjustment for me is losing my Google Photos storage. For the last few years, every photo and video I’ve taken on my phone has been saved on my Fordham Google Photos account, which adds up to over 125GB of data. To keep my photos, I will be transferring the photos to my personal Google account using the photo sharing feature, and buying a larger storage plan for that account.
This process can be like a walk down educational memory lane — I know I forget about most of my old essays and assignments the moment the semester ends
This is not the only way to save your Google Photos from the flame, but I love the Google Photos user interface so it is an unfortunate but necessary purchase for me. Students who are less loyal to Google Photos can also download their photos and videos from Google and save them in an external device or cloud storage service, similar to the Google Drive files. Either way, I recommend backing up your photos regularly so that your memories are safe if anything happens to your phone.
Did you know that Google Suite files, like Google Docs and Google Slides take storage space on your account? College students work with hundreds of these documents every semester, and let’s be honest: most of them do not need to be saved for the rest of time. I recommend taking a designated chunk of time to look through your Google Docs account and delete any old Google Docs you will not ever look at again.
This process can be like a walk down educational memory lane — I know I forget about most of my old essays and assignments the moment the semester ends. Google Docs are not that large of files, so this likely will not be the primary way to clear up your Google account storage. However, it might be the purge you need to push you over the edge, and it is a good practice to be mindful of your storage usage.
Cleaning up your storage can be a tedious process, but it can also be nostalgic, and even freeing.
Finally, your emails also take up space. Fordham students receive thousands of emails over the course of a semester, and these can add up, especially messages with attachments included. You can go through your Fordham email and filter your messages by date or by attachments and delete old emails and messages with large attachments to clear up space. You might even stumble on a message or two that you missed.
If you need more information, the Fordham Information Technology webpage has a great resource page to help you out.
Cleaning up your storage can be a tedious process, but it can also be nostalgic, and even freeing. Looking back at all the work that you have done, and releasing yourself from old files can be a good milestone reflection of how far you’ve come and a look forward to what you have ahead of you.
Personally, I would prefer if I did not have to be so stingy with my storage, but since it does not seem like this policy will change any time soon, it is important to begin doing so sooner rather than later. However, I am a bit perplexed by the storage quota that has been imposed on students.
It seems like we could easily be provided with 15GB of storage, 50% more than the current limit, because that is the amount of space granted to a free personal Google account. Fordham could also invest in providing 100GB for students, since that costs $10/year for a regular account and they should certainly be able to get an educator bulk discount. Since we already pay technology fees, that should not be an issue.
I realize that will likely never happen, but I am frustrated that Fordham cannot offer paid data plans. I intend to buy storage in another google account and transfer my files over to that one, but it would be much easier to be able to buy a larger storage plan on this account at the same rate and not have to go through the hassle of transferring my files over.
These data limits are prohibitive for digital media students, and do not reflect the requirements of modern day files. I hope the Fordham task force working out these changes can find a more viable solution to the new Google storage situation which better serves students. Until then, I will be moving my data using the techniques I outlined, and I recommend my fellow Fordham students do the same.
