For more than a decade, Google offered the full suite of services at no cost to higher education universities; however, Google has announced limits on our storage use. As a result, the university must limit the total storage footprint used by all CSUMB services in Google systems by January 2, 2024 to avoid drastically increased costs (the timeline is on hold pending review by Cabinet).
Google Drive and other core services are not going away
Google Workspace will remain available to you as long as your account remains under the limit (see File Storage at CSUMB).
You will still have access to Google My Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Meet, Google Chat, YouTube, and the majority of services Google offers.
Individual storage limits
As an institution, we now have a maximum limit of data we can store in Google Workspace. As of January 2, 2024 the limits are:
Individual users
- Each student may use up to 25 GB of storage.
- Each staff and faculty may use up to 75 GB of storage.
Employees who have data in excess of 75 GB will have an extended deadline of June 2024. IT will contact and work with them to lower their data or move to alternate storage.
What is included in Google Workspace Quotas?
Apps, services, and features that contribute to our overall usage include:
- Google Workspace My Drive
- Google Workspace Photos for individuals
- CSUMB Gmail
Note: Files stored in Shared Drives do not count towards your individual storage limit quota.
Note: CSUMB YouTube channels are not affected by these changes.
Your current storage
Check your individual Google Storage.
Be sure you are logged into your CSUMB Google account, not a personal Google account.
Note: If you keep files in a shared drive, they don’t count against your personal file storage quota.
What happens if I am over my quota?
If you are over CSUMB Google storage limit, you will be able to:
- Send and receive email
- View a file.
- Share a file with collaborators both inside and outside of CSUMB Workspace.
If you are over your CSUMB Google storage limit, you will no longer be able to:
- Upload new files or images to Google Drive.
- Add any photos and videos to Google Photos.
- Create new collaborative files like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings and Forms.
- Edit or copy affected files.
- Submit forms owned by the user
Read our knowledge base article What Happens When I'm Over My Google Workspace Quota to see specific screenshots you'll get when over Quota.
If you are over quota and you don't think you should be, you may have files in your Google My Drive owned by other users; refer to Manage files in your Google Drive Storage.
Shared Drives quotas
Shared drive are 25 GB folders for departments and committees to share documents with each other and the campus; these files don't count towards an individual's quota, and they don't disappear when the employee leaves the university.
New shared drives are available through a ticket.
On December 31, 2023, IT will set all existing share drives to a 25 GB limit.
How can I see how much storage my Shared Drive is using?
To see how much storage your Shared Drive is using, open the details tab by clicking on the Details tab:
Scroll down for the drive information:
What happens if a Google Shared Drive is over its storage quota?
If a Shared Drive is over its quota, drive members will not be able to add new files or edit existing files until the storage used by the individual shared drive is back under the 25 GB quota.
Can I get more space beyond these quotas?
If an employee or department needs additional Shared Drive storage above the standard quota, they can submit a service ticket and we will work with them to determine the best file storage option for their particular needs.
This includes large data file needs (e.g. GIS, genomics, multimedia, super computing) that need low-latency solutions that are local, not in the cloud.
Tip: How to find large files in Gmail and My Drive
There are some quick ways to find your large files quickly to when cleaning up your CSUMB Gmail and Google My Drive accounts.
Watch our Tech Tip Tuesday video or follow the directions below to target those large files.
Gmail
Watch this process in this snippet from our Tech Tip Tuesday episode 49 video.
Step one: In your Gmail account click on the filter icon in the search bar:
Step two: In the filter search box find the Size area and start by setting it to greater than 25 MB then click the Search button.
Step three: You will now have a list of all emails with attachments over 25 MB and can easily search and delete any of the messages that are not needed anymore by right clicking and selecting remove.
Note: Messages will remain in the trash for 30 days and can be recovered. While they are in the trash they will still count against your quota. If you empty your Google Trash these messages are gone and can not be recovered.
My Drive
Step one: In your Google My Drive click on the storage icon at the bottom of the left navigation pane.
Step two: You will be taken to a screen that gives you your file storage usage overall picture (top of screen) as well as list your biggest files in your My Drive.
Step Three: To remove a file, right click on it and select remove.
What to remove
- Any items of a personal, non-CSUMB nature. Personal files should be downloaded and moved to a personal cloud account or removable thumb or SSD drivn then delete them from your CSUMB My Drive account.
- Any Sensitive/Level 1 data. Sensitive data should not be stored in anything other than the system of record.
- Don't forget the photos! Download any personal photos you have saved and move them to a personal cloud account or removable thumb or solid state drive then delete them from your CSUMB My Drive account.
- Out-of-date or duplicate docs, sheets, forms or other file types. It's basic housekeeping time. Your Google My Drive should be used for active, collaborative documents and not as a means of archival for files that could otherwise be stored elsewhere depending on the department.
- Emails with large attachments. If the attachments have been downloaded, are stored elsewhere, or are otherwise something you are not going to need, delete them.
Note: When you delete items in Google Workspace, they remain in the Trash folder in your account for 30 days unless you go into your Trash folder and delete the files in there.
Data classification and retention for storage in Google Shared Drive, My Drive & Gmail
Google My Drive and Shared Drive are not an appropriate locations to store sensitive data, refer to Sensitive Date (Level 1 & Level 2). If you have any sensitive data stored in your My Drive or department Shared Drives, remove it immediately.
Also make sure you are adhering to all data retention policies established by the Chancellor’s office, which gives us legal guidelines for how long we have to retain different records, including email; refer to CSU’s Records Retention and Disposition.