Google Rolls Out Surprise File Limits in Drive ⇥ arstechnica.com

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica:

[…] 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.

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.

You know what enterprise I.T. departments love? Surprises.

Microsoft also has limitations for OneDrive and SharePoint, which are known because they are documented. Even so, and while I am sure there are good reasons for these things, limitations like these feels like a regression. A maximum number of files, and maximum path lengths? Even stranger, Microsoft says performance will be degraded if you sync more than 300,000 files in SharePoint, even though it supports storing up to thirty million files.

Update: Google says it is rolling back this change.