AI stuff - Gemini is great for dealing with Google Stuff

TidBITS Talk
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I’ve mostly been using ChatGPT. But I’ve read some good reviews about Gemini, which is run by Google, and decided to try it.

I use a legacy G Suite account for my family domain. Some of you might recall I was confused because Google Photos was showing that I had unlimited space. In addition to my free 15 GB I had previously purchased a 100 GB plan. Google eventually dropped the charge for that and grandfathered it in, but I didn’t have a way to add more and was reaching my limit.

To make a long explanation short it was all very confusing.

But since Gemini is run by Google it was fantastic with helping me sort it out! It explained everything. Plus it helped me add a 1 TB plan at 90% off ($4/month for a year) so now my family plan is at 1.15 TB, with the other family members all using just single digits of space.

So I can go back to also doing Google Photos backup of all my iPhone photos, like in the “good old days” when they had unlimited Google Photos space. And make more use of my Google Drive as needed.

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Any tips you can post here?

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If you have a Legacy Account here is the snippet from my Gemini conversation that got me started. Let me know if you have any questions.

This is a fascinating situation. You have essentially stumbled into a “perfect storm” of grandfathered perks that Google has struggle to reconcile with their modern systems.

The “Unlimited” label is likely part visual bug and part technical reality due to how Google recently transitioned legacy accounts to a “Pooled Storage” model.

Can you buy more? (Good News for 2025)

For a long time, the answer was a hard “No.” However, as of mid-2025, Google has quietly re-opened a path for Legacy users to add storage due to the new “Pooled” model.

  • How to do it: You have to go through the Google Admin Console (admin.google.com), not the consumer Google One app.2

  • The Path: Go to Billing > Get more services > Google Workspace add-ons.

  • The Pricing: You should see a “Workspace Additional Storage” add-on. Interestingly, many legacy users are reporting a massive discount here (sometimes as low as $1.50/month for 100GB or $4/month for 1TB) to keep them from migrating away.

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If you’re comfortable posting them, I’d be interested to see the prompts you used to get the information that solved your problem.
(I view generative AI prompts to be the current form of the art of making search queries)

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Sure.

This was my initial question:

Since Gemini is a Google product, I have a question regarding my legacy G Suite account, which I’m using for personal use, and Google Photos..

We went back and forth a couple of times and it finally replied with this, which led me to the solution:

This is a fascinating situation. You have essentially stumbled into a “perfect storm” of grandfathered perks that Google has struggle to reconcile with their modern systems.

The “Unlimited” label is likely part visual bug and part technical reality due to how Google recently transitioned legacy accounts to a “Pooled Storage” model.

  1. Is it a mistake? (The “Unlimited” Mystery)
    Technically, it is likely a UI (User Interface) error triggered by the way Google handles individual limits in a pooled environment.

The Transition: In early 2025, Google transitioned Legacy accounts from “Individual Quotas” (where each user has 15GB) to “Pooled Storage” (where the entire domain shares a total bucket).

The Bug: Because you are the “Admin” (the owner) and haven’t set an explicit quota for yourself in the Admin Console, Google Photos sees “No Limit Applied” and defaults to displaying “Unlimited.”

The Reality: You are still bound by the total size of your “pool.” If you have 3 users on your legacy account, you likely have a shared pool of 45GB (15GB x 3) plus your grandfathered 100GB. Once you hit that total, the “unlimited” party will stop, and your email will bounce.

  1. The Grandfathered 100GB “Ghost” Plan
    You are in a rare group. When Google killed the ability to buy storage for Legacy accounts in 2022, they had a major issue with people who already had active subscriptions.

The “Free” Upgrade: Because their billing system couldn’t easily migrate “Legacy Personal Storage” into “Workspace Business Storage,” they simply stopped charging many users but left the storage active to avoid the PR nightmare of deleting people’s data.

The Status: You effectively have a “lifetime” 100GB bonus as long as you don’t touch the settings or try to change plans.

  1. Can you buy more? (Good News for 2025)
    For a long time, the answer was a hard “No.” However, as of mid-2025, Google has quietly re-opened a path for Legacy users to add storage due to the new “Pooled” model.

How to do it: You have to go through the Google Admin Console (admin.google.com), not the consumer Google One app.

The Path: Go to Billing > Get more services > Google Workspace add-ons.

The Pricing: You should see a “Workspace Additional Storage” add-on. Interestingly, many legacy users are reporting a massive discount here (sometimes as low as $1.50/month for 100GB or $4/month for 1TB) to keep them from migrating away.

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