University of Wisconsin–Madison

Google Drive storage quotas now in effect

On June 1, we made several changes to UW–‍Madison Google accounts. These changes are part of the Reshaping the Google Workspace storage project.
  • A 25 GB quota was applied to individual My Drives and shared drives
  • A 0 GB quota was applied to service account My Drives
Note: If your My Drive or shared drive has an approved long-term quota exception, your account remains in good standing. You’ll keep your larger quota.

My account is read-only. What should I do?

If your My Drive or a shared drive you manage is over the 25 GB quota, your account is read-only. The default quota is 25 GB but you can request more storage if needed. Your account will remain read-only until you take action. To regain full functionality of your My Drive or shared drive, you can do 1 or both of the following:
  • Reduce your storage to under 25 GB, and/or
  • Request more storage
Request more storage

Are you using Google Photos?

If you’re storing files in Google Photos, a non-core app, you need to move your photos and reduce your Google Photos storage to 0 GB before we can process your request for more storage. See this KB article for guidance on managing Google Photos. Learn more about the My Drive user experience after June 1 and view additional options to address the read-only status.

A reminder about shared drives

We’re making changes to Google shared drives as part of the Reshaping the Google Workspace Service project. We’ll be deleting shared drives that:
  • Have no members at all, or
  • Have only external members (no UW-affiliated members)
To prevent a shared drive from being deleted, make sure it has at least 1 member affiliated with UW–‍Madison. This change will improve our security, help us manage storage and free up valuable resources for current students, faculty and staff. See the Shared drive user experience KnowledgeBase (KB) for more information.

Questions?

The Preparing for Storage Quotas KB has more information including links to helpful resources. Contact the Help Desk if you have questions. To learn more about the project, check out the IT project page.