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      Google calls Drive data loss “fixed,” locks forum threads saying otherwise

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 7 December - 22:26 · 1 minute

    Google calls Drive data loss “fixed,” locks forum threads saying otherwise

    Enlarge (credit: Google Drive )

    Google is dealing with its second "lost data" fiasco in the past few months. This time, it's Google Drive, which has been mysteriously losing files for some people. Google acknowledged the issue on November 27, and a week later, it posted what it called a fix.

    It doesn't feel like Google is describing this issue correctly; the company still calls it a "syncing issue" with the Drive desktop app versions 84.0.0.0 through 84.0.4.0. Syncing problems would only mean files don't make it to or from the cloud, and that doesn't explain why people are completely losing files. In the most popular issue thread on the Google Drive Community forums, several users describe spreadsheets and documents going missing, which all would have been created and saved in the web interface, not the desktop app, and it's hard to see how the desktop app could affect that. Many users peg "May 2023" as the time documents stopped saving. Some say they've never used the desktop app.

    Drive has multiple ways of syncing files, which complicates any explanation or diagnosis of what's going on. The most suspect mode in the whole fiasco is the default "file streaming," mode which is actually cloud-first. Files get removed from your computer and stored in the cloud, saving space and leaving only a web link in their place. Perhaps a "syncing" issue could remove files from your computer before uploading (that still doesn't explain the claims of missing web documents, though).

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      Google Drive : l’iPhone se dote enfin de cette fonction incontournable

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Friday, 1 December - 11:30

    Google Drive Web

    Des années après Android, Google Drive sur iOS se dote enfin d'un scanner de document. Un outil pratique pour les iPhone et iPad.

    Google Drive : l’iPhone se dote enfin de cette fonction incontournable

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      Avez-vous un compte Google ? Il y a du changement au 1er décembre 2023

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Thursday, 30 November - 14:25

    Google

    Google appliquera à partir du 1er décembre 2023 une nouvelle politique consistant à supprimer les comptes inactifs. Si vous avez délaissé le vôtre depuis longtemps, voilà les démarches à faire pour ne pas le perdre. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      Too many users abused unlimited Dropbox plans, so they’re getting limits

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 25 August, 2023 - 19:33

    Too many users abused unlimited Dropbox plans, so they’re getting limits

    Enlarge (credit: Dropbox)

    Sometimes the honor system just doesn't work.

    Up until yesterday, Dropbox offered an unlimited $24-per-user-per-month plan for businesses called Dropbox Advanced that came with an "as much as you need" storage cap. This was intended to free business users from needing to worry about quotas.

    But as with unlimited cell phone data plans, the bad behavior of a small group of users is apparently ruining unlimited Dropbox storage for everybody. The company said in a blog post yesterday that it was retiring its unlimited storage policy specifically because people were buying Dropbox Advanced accounts "for purposes like crypto and Chia mining, unrelated individuals pooling storage for personal use cases, or even instances of reselling storage." Dropbox says that these users were using "thousands of times more storage than [their] genuine business customers."

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      Google va supprimer votre compte s’il est inactif depuis longtemps

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Wednesday, 17 May, 2023 - 08:29

    suppression delete

    Google annonce une nouvelle règle pour les comptes. Ceux qui sont inactifs pendant une durée continue de deux ans pourront être supprimés, à partir de décembre 2023. Pour rassurer, Google assure qu'il est facile de prouver que son compte est toujours utilisé. [Lire la suite]

    Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

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      Google Drive gets a desperately needed “spam” folder for shared files

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 12 May, 2023 - 16:20 · 1 minute

    Look at that! A Google Drive spam folder!

    Enlarge / Look at that! A Google Drive spam folder! (credit: Google)

    Fifteen years after launching Google Docs and Sheets with file sharing, Google is adding what sounds like adequate safety controls to the feature. Google Drive (the file repository interface that contains your Docs, Sheets, and Slides files) is finally getting a spam folder and algorithmic spam filters, just like Gmail has. It sounds like the update will provide a way to limit Drive's unbelievably insecure behavior of allowing random people to add files to your Drive account without your consent or control.

    Because Google essentially turned Drive file-sharing into email, Google Drive needs every spam control that Gmail has. Anyone with your email address can "share" a file with you, and a ton of spammers already have your email address. Previously, Drive assumed that all shared files were legitimate and wanted, with the only "control" being "security by obscurity" and hoping no one else knew your email address.

    Drive shows any shared files in your shared documents folder, notifies you of the share on your phone, highlights the "new recent file" at the top of the Drive interface, lists the file in searches, and sends you an email about it, all without any indication that you know the file sharer at all. For years, some people in my life have been inundated with shared Google Drive files containing porn, ads, dating site scams, and malware. For a long time, there was nothing you could do to support affected users other than disabling Drive notifications, telling them to ignore the highlighted porn ads at the top of their Drive account, and warning them to never click on the "shared files" folder. (Sorry, Mom.)

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      After disrupting businesses, Google Drive’s secret file cap is dead for now

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 4 April, 2023 - 16:38 · 1 minute

    After disrupting businesses, Google Drive’s secret file cap is dead for now

    Enlarge (credit: Google)

    Google is backtracking on its decision to put a file creation cap on Google Drive. Around two months ago, the company decided to cap all Google Drive users to 5 million files, even if they were paying for extra storage. The company did this in the worst way possible, rolling out the limit as a complete surprise and with no prior communication. Some users logged in to find they were suddenly millions of files over the new limit and unable to upload new files until they deleted enough to get under the limit. Some of these users were businesses that had the sudden file cap bring down their systems, and because Google never communicated that the change was coming, many people initially thought the limitation was a bug.

    Apparently, sunshine really is the best disinfectant. The story made the tech news rounds on Friday, and Ars got Google on the record saying that the file cap was not a bug and was actually "a safeguard to prevent misuse of our system in a way that might impact the stability and safety of the system." After the weekend reaction to "Google Drive's Secret File Cap!" Google announced on Twitter Monday night that it was rolling back the limit:

    Google told us it initially rolled the limitation out to stop what it called "misuse" of Drive, and with the tweet saying Google wants to "explore alternate approaches to ensure a great experience for all," it sounds like we might see more kinds of Drive limitations in the future. Google has been on a cost-cutting mission over the past year, and it sounds like the company wants to do something to cut off the most resource-intensive Drive users.

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      Google Drive does a surprise rollout of file limits, locking out some users

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 31 March, 2023 - 18:21 · 1 minute

    The Google Workspace icons.

    Enlarge / The Google Workspace icons. (credit: Google)

    "Please delete 2 million files to continue using your Google Drive account." That was the message that Reddit user ra13 woke up to one day. Google apparently decided to put a hard limit on the number of files you're allowed to have on one Google Drive account. Google rolled out this file limit without warning anyone it would happen. Users over the limit found themselves suddenly locked out of new file uploads, and it was up to them to figure out what was going wrong.

    Did we mention this all started in February? A post on the Google Drive API issue tracker shows some users have been seeing this error for almost two months now. The original message said: "The limit for the number of items, whether trashed or not, created by this account has been exceeded." And sometime in March, it was updated to say, "Error 403: This account has exceeded the creation limit of 5 million items. To create more items, move items to the trash and delete them forever." Since there is nothing anywhere that informs users Google Drive has a file limit, users originally thought this was a bug and asked Google to quickly fix it. It has been two months now, though, and Google has not issued a public response. Some users say they have gotten Google Support to privately confirm the limit is intended, and a pop-up message is starting to show up in the Drive UI for some users.

    It might be understandable to limit a data hog abusing a free account, but that's not what's happening here. Google is selling this storage to users, via both the Google Workspace business accounts and the consumer-grade Google One storage plans. Google One tops out at 30TB of storage, which costs an incredible $150 a month to use. Google Workspace's formal plans cap out at 5TB, but an "Enterprise" plan promises "As much storage as you need." From what we can tell in the various comments on reddit and the issue tracker, both consumer and business account types are subject to this hidden 5 million file limit.

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      Google Drive : cette limite de fichiers a surpris tout le monde

      news.movim.eu / JournalDuGeek · Friday, 31 March, 2023 - 08:30

    google-drive-158x105.jpg Google Drive

    Des utilisateurs de Reddit ont découvert que Google impose une limite de fichiers aux utilisateurs de Google Drive. Même les utilisateurs payants n'échappent pas à cette curieuse limitation.

    Google Drive : cette limite de fichiers a surpris tout le monde