> If you have a Pixel 1-5, photos uploaded from that device won’t be impacted. Photos and videos uploaded in High quality from that device will continue to be exempt from this change, even after June 1, 2021.
All good things come to an end, but at least they still honor the promise they made with the Pixel phones.
It may just be cleaner to write it this way because the guarantee was different between generations, but the choice of "High quality" looks intentional. Pixel 1-3 (I don't remember 4, but definitely not 4a) were guaranteed unlimited storage at "full resolution", and for subsequent models the guarantee was changed to "high quality".
I have a Pixel 3, and this feature was important to me when I purchased the phone.
Pixel 1 is unique in that they forgot to put a deadline into the deal. They didn't make the same mistake for the next ones. And, yes, unlimited original quality still works for me as of today, but I'm not taking any chances with deleting my local copies.
Though, to be honest, Pixel 1 is absolutely horrendous when it comes to replacing the battery. Even if you did manage to open it without breaking the screen, good luck putting it back together. I did a poor job on mine, part of the bottom bezel didn't stick and there are weird green glitches on the screen when you press on that part. This thing really wasn't designed to ever come apart.
So, anyway, I have a Pixel 4a on its way to me, and I'm paying 50€/month for a server with much more disk space than I know what to do with. Are there any decent self-hosted replacements for Google Photos?
If you click through the blog post to the support page listing for Pixels they do suggest that Pixel 1s will continue to get unlimited uploads, and Pixel 3s will get them until the original expiration of Jan 31, 2022. The expiration for Pixel 2 will have already expired.
It appears that it's locked to the device you're using, so I would guess you're limited to "high quality". That's a real problem for, say, people taking photospheres, which generally clock in at around 40MP, and will be reduced to 2MP at "high quality".
Oh no, that's terrible. I really need to migrate, I guess. I was getting tired for paying for Google drive anyway. Onto someone elses family plan, I go.
Worth noting that promise has an expiration date though: my Pixel 3XL says "Unlimited storage for full resolution photos & videos uploaded from your Pixel before 2/1/2022". You can find this in the Backup & Sync settings page in the Photos app.
I bought a Pixel 1 and never got the free storage of raw photos. Eventually had to export everything to dropbox and convert everything to lower quality within photos. There is no way to fix this.
Somehow I suspect that is less about fulfilling their promise to the consumer and more about “let’s not piss off regulators in any more ways than they already are”...
All good things come to an end, but at least they still honor the promise they made with the Pixel phones.