Legacy (free) into Paid Workspace

[Rpiedade]

Hi,

I am a long time free Legacy user. It's been used primarily as a family account so that members can have a custom email address.

Recently I was notified that this product is going away and I will have to migrate to one of the Workspaces.

So I have 2 comments.

1 - The price is fair for a bussiness account, but for a family account it isn't affordable.  I will be keeping my user, but the majority (10) accounts will need to be deleted.  This causes an issue with them no longer having access to their photos for example.  If instead I had decided to not upgrade, then these same users would still have access to photos.  But having to upgrade and delete them, actually puts them at a disadvantage.  I would like to suggest another option instead of delete.  Maybe a flag to disable, but still allow them access to photos (and their android phones, etc.).

2 - Office360 offers a similar product, but with a discounted price tier for families.  It's $99.99/yr for 6 users.  So I want to suggest that Google look into a similar offering for non bussiness accounts.

[Marvin0042]

As most of us "family" account holders are only using it for the personalised domain emails, calendar, contacts, plus as login for the other Google services, they should be able to offer a family account, basically a Gmail with your own domain, without all the other workplace stuff nobody uses. Migadu offers unlimited domains email w 5GB storage for $19/yr. Google should be able to offer something similar.

[GW]

Hi! I am in exactly the same situation as everyone else here, hoping/waiting/praying that the Google People with Power will heed our concerns and grant us a suitable solution.
Meanwhile, does anyone know how I can keep all of my emails, archive them somewhere that I can still reference them, like search and lookup info? I also have a second old domain attached to my legacy account that has old emails that I want to keep. Just now, someone wants to buy my old domain, so I have to clean this out first.  I imagine some of you are in a similar situation and can please advise/tell me what you would do. Thank you!

[kim_nilsson]

You can use GYB to backup your emails to file on your computer.

Then upload them to a regular Gmail account, or elsewhere.

[Marvin0042]

You can use takeout.google.com to backup all your data and settings, including emails.

I did this to move everything to a personal gmail account, which I will use as my new Gmail gateway. However I found this has a few quirks:

• Emails are exported to an .mbox file which, ironically, cannot be imported into another Gmail account.
• Mbox does not retain folder info. For clients that read Mbox (like Thunderbird) all emails are imported into the inbox, with no folder structure
• Filters are exported in a json format, which also can't be imported into another Gmail account. (workaround is to export the filters directly from Gmail, which saves it in xml format).
• Calendar files and Contacts are best exported directly from Google if you want to import them to another gmail account.

I found some of those command line migration/gmail backup tools complex to use and got a few errors, so I found this way to move emails between two gmail accounts, using Thunderbird as the go-between (you can probably do this to move to other accounts like Outlook as well).

• Install Thunderbird
• Connect to the two gmail accounts using IMAP (ensure IMAP is on for both accounts)
• Sync the "master" google account so all emails are downloaded
• Once synced, copy all emails & folders from the master account to Thunderbirds Local Folders section
• Then copy the folders and emails from the local folders to the new gmail account. 

It takes a while, I have about 9000 emails and sync has been going on and off for about 3-4 hours by now.

[kim_nilsson]

Yeah, using Thunderbird and moving content via IMAP (you shouldn't have to copy to local folder first) is the easiest to explain and do. It doesn't give the best result, though.

The free command line tool GYB gives the best result, even if it does takes some effort to set up. It's built to do exactly what is asked for. Backing up proper Gmail content and restoring it in the proper format.

[Zaphreux]

Same case for me, I'm using Google Workspace for years. And almost only for personalized email address. 20 € per month for 4 emails address is far too expensive.

[wrldtvlr]

People are starting to post their migration experiences in Reddit. The amount of Google products being used and the number of accounts has a bearing on the level of difficulty.

[icrew]

Press coverage, but no news: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/before-google-kills-free-gsuite-accounts-why-not-offer-a-fam...

[natoobr]

I'm not migrating anything to google, I manage multiple G Suite accounts, I'm going to close them all. There was a promise to be "free always", and now that we have integrated all the services, they cancel everything, my email account, for example, is connected with several services, google maps, calendar, notes... I will change everything and get used to it. without that... I don't consider google's proposal viable for Brazil and developing countries...

[SchroederJF]

I share your sentiments. Plus, you find that there are NO mechanisms for moving your email to the @gmail.com account, or moving your YouTube content (uploads, playlist, subscriptions (not subscribers), etc.) I've been using YouTube Premium for years and really like it, have accumulated lots of this, and it looks to be a major PITA to get the content over to the non-workspace account. Plus, I get a discounted $69/yr Office Family account from Microsoft with generous allowances as an employee of one of the zillions of organizations that use Office 365 now.  I won't even go into what their storage policy change is doing to me as an admin of a university Google Workspace tenant.

[DRW]

I'm in the same situation as most others in this thread.   I've had my own family domain for well over 10 years.   It is used by myself, my wife and my daughter for email.  I use my own domain so our email addresses NEVER have to change.   I'm certainly not happy about having to pay for something that has been free for so long.   However, as many have said, I would be OK with paying a reasonable annual fee for a "Family Plan" with a limited number of users.   The advertised "business" plans are way too expensive for the average family with 3, 4 or more people in it and using it just for email.

The reality is that I can't see what the difference is to Google if we stay the way we are or if the only way to get it for free is to move to a @gmail.com email address (not going to happen for me!)   It's the same number of emails, the same amount of storage etc so why force everyone to @gmail.com just to keep it free???

[teshera]

I am now receiving a discount offer for "Google Workspace Business Starter" but nothing assures me that that Workspace Business Starter includes email hosting of my custom domain and access to Google calendar which are the two things I need. Can anyone tell me if this offer does include that? (offer below) thanks

$0 USD for 4 months

then

Discounted price is $3 per user per month

$3 USD

Full price is $6 per user per month

$6 / user / month

50% off

[JavierMasini]

If the discounted price is permanent, it is better than what they are offering to me: the discounted price is for 12 months only. After 12 months, 6 dollars per account. 

[mpradny]

What do you see in the admin console? It states simply 50% off in my case, but when I hover over the ? icon, it clearly shows that it's just for a year.

[icrew]

See the comparison chart at https://support.google.com/a/answer/6043385?hl=en for exactly what Business Starter includes.

Hope that helps,

Ian

[Ironghat]

Interesting.

To answer your question, yes "Google Workspace Business Starter" does include custom domain and email.

Where did you get this offer? Was it displayed on your admin console or was it emailed to you?

[JavierMasini]

I spent a couple of hours in the chat with them, plus the account was created in a low-cost country, and that added to it. 

[teshera]

Yes, it was displayed on my admin consul when I logged on.

SanAntonioBikeTours.com
"The Laid Back Way to See S.A."

[extortedGoogler]

I believe it does not. I have the experience of thinking that workspace was different from GSuite, so I canceled Workspace and spent half a day with my son getting our accounts and lives back. Before I rejected their offer, I had the same terms that you did, but since I rejected it and cancelled, when I finally subscribed to workspace, the offer was gone and they wanted six dollars per user and it definitely did not include gmail, even though I saw gmail in a list of workspace features. You have to pay an extra $30/month for gmail.

[extortedGoogler]

per user.

[overscannz]

I'm in New Zealand - so not a low-cost country -  and appear to have been offered 50% off Business Starter without the "for 12 months" qualifier. Probably still not enough to bite, but others might find it enough.

[overscannz]

I was wrong. They removed the for 12 months tag from the screen but if you hover over it does show 12 months.

[extortedGoogler]

I followed the instructions to delete the new workspace account that was created without my consent only to find that google, after about 18 years of using gmail, deleted my gmail account and all of my emails and calendars and those of my other family members. A search reveals that I am not alone. There doesn't seem to be a way to communicate with any humans at Google. I am grateful for their free services for 18 years, but if you're going to change your model and not be clear about what you're canceling, I expect that there are going to be a lot of dummies like myself who lose their lifetime of emails, calendar and spreadsheets. Does anyone know how to contact a human at Google?

#googleExtortion

[kim_nilsson]

I'm sorry, but that sounds like a really dumb idea. Why would you ever think that would go any other way than you describe? Deleting your account means exactly that.

Here's the official way to regain access to your Workspace account. Hurry! The data will be permanently deleted unless you work fast. 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/6335621?hl=en

[extortedGoogler]

I admit it was dumb, but in my defense, I believed that I was deleting an account that google set up for me, since I did not recognize the name workspace. I started with google apps, which changed to gsuite and when they switched to the subscription model, it would have been nice if they had let me know that they had changed the name. Given the amount of spam we all receive, something as serious as this should have been made crystal clear.  BTW, we resolved the problem by subscribing to workspace and adding the extra $30/mo./user for gmail. We will use the next month or two to compare what we have with competitors. 

[kim_nilsson]

Yeah, but $30/mo/user is way off.

That's like the most expensive Enterprise version.

$6 is the basic price, with Gmail. 

[extortedGoogler]

Thank you. We will study the welcome to workspace materials and see if we
can figure it out.

Regards,
Bob Gillette
617-549-9090

[icrew]

Google changed the name to Workspace in October 2020, nothing to do with this change.

[timtucker]

As far as I know, there's only 1 guaranteed way to be able to talk to a human at Google: get hired.

https://careers.google.com/jobs/results/ 

[darin]

Has anyone submitted a "Feature Idea" regarding a family option that aligns price wise with offerings from other providers like Microsoft or Apple?

I have access to the Feature Ideas group and will gladly submit the idea, and likely will regardless, but the communities ability to get this in front of someone/anyone at Google seems fairly limited.

[timtucker]

Yes, there's one here:

https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Feature-Ideas/Family-Plan-pricing-for-Workspace/idc-p/414416

[SteveD]

Hi Darin

Thanks for the offer of submitting ideas. 

I'd like the option to transfer everything, including emails, to a free gmail.com account. Much like when Google Play Music was shut down and users data was transferred to YouTube Music.

I host my domain elsewhere so I could forward old domain emails to the new Gmail address. 

[kim_nilsson]

Yes, that was promised, but wasn't delivered.

What is offered is a way to keep all your content, except Gmail, for free.

But with that no-cost option your email must be managed elsewhere.

[Stubloke]

https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_uk/contact-form/

I was given this link yesterday as a way to talk to the Workspace Sales team and negotiate pricing.

[darin]

Having to negotiate pricing is not a proper solution to this mess, Google needs to provide a proper pricing scheme for individuals and families who what a custom domain to be an available option. Besides, what does an individual/family have as leverage when negotiating pricing? It's one thing for a business with 100's or 1000's of  employees to negotiate pricing for their organization, and have the resources to migrate to another service provided, it's another thing for any small group or organization, whether a business or individual.

[tnarraf]

Just been 'chatting ' to a sympathetic support person at Google who wants a family plan for their own personal custom domain on G Suite. Promised to push an internal feature request for a family plan based on my 'call'.

Just adding my comment to this forum about this in the hope Google is not totally deaf. Willing to pay a little (I already do for 100Gb drive space) - something similar to Microsoft Family Plan would be OK - but NOT Business prices - too expensive.
Ideally I just want email NOT all the other Google Docs stuff

[mpradny]

Google just rolled out an option to stay on Legacy for personal use, including a custom domain.

[abitrandom · Accepted solution]

Thanks for noticing and posting this! I can confirm it just let me stick with the personal-use plan. Link https://admin.google.com/?action_id=SE_SELF_TRANSITION

[extortedGoogler]

I followed the link and it says, "Something went wrong... This offer is no longer available."

[DRW]

I used the link myself this morning about 3 hours ago and it worked fine.
If it has stopped working since then I am happy that I timed it right!