Legacy G Suite users - what are you going to do?

[Azza]

https://support.google.com/a/answer...to-upgrade-to-a-google-workspace-subscription



Just wondering if anyone else is still using the old free legacy G Suite account and what they're planning on doing?

I've completed the survey thing, there seems to be rumours they might do a family type workplace plan but we'll see about that.

I really only have 2 active 'users' and another for my Dad on a different G Suite.

 

[thenewoc]

I've got 3 domains to sort out. I'll be consolidating user accounts first to get down to a single user on each domain.

I've not seen the survey yet as I assume that was sent to the admin user account. I think it's a crazy move by Google to be honest. Why when they make billions would they choose to introduce such a petty move at such a time as this. It can't cost them anything to provide customer domain type email. They'd already gimped the offering to what it used to be when they grandfathered people into the Google apps for business when you were no longer able to set up sub domains. Their offering so far that no longer includes using your own domain is ridiculous. So short sighted of Google to alienate people with such a petty move. I've already cancelled my YouTube premium and Stadia trials. I won't be using Google analytics or Google cloud platform going forward either.

Anyway Microsoft have responded with an easy win for them by offering us 60% off to switch. I'll be doing this for my main business domain.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...mall-businesses-using-googles-legacy-g-suite/

The other two I'm thinking of using email forwarding on my DNS provider then in Gmail using the setting to send email as those domains. The generic email addresses I created I think can be set up as Google Groups but with the right permissions so that the public can't see them.

 

[Feek]

I’ve got about four or five domains with them, they started off as Google Apps accounts and have migrated through.

They’re all used for family so I’ve filled in the surveys for each and will see what happens. They’ve only ever been used for email, I had to enable apps and docs for each one in order to fill in the forms.

Really don’t want to pay for them.

 

[Mattus]

Filled out the survey and will see what is offered. Really don't want to pay for email, but not sure there is going to be an alternative elsewhere (if you want to use your own domain)?

 

[thenewoc]

Maybe Zoho.

 

[Feek]

Filled out the survey and will see what is offered. Really don't want to pay for email, but not sure there is going to be an alternative elsewhere (if you want to use your own domain)?

My problem is that although I only have one email address on each domain, there's ten years of email history on each one which I don't really want to lose. It'd be relatively straightforward to change the MX records and host the email elsewhere but the family would quite like to keep their old emails.

I'm hoping that they'll let personal Google Apps accounts keep running but there's no way of knowing yet what they'll do. There's no way I'm paying £4/user/month, that would be ridiculous.

 

[beh]

Completed the survey, will be interesting to see if they offer any alternative. I'll probably just keep paying for one account regardless as it's a fair price or at least I don't see any options better than gmail.

My problem is that although I only have one email address on each domain, there's ten years of email history on each one which I don't really want to lose. It'd be relatively straightforward to change the MX records and host the email elsewhere but the family would quite like to keep their old emails.

It's possible to download your emails either by following https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en or using something like http://gmvault.org/.

 

[Feek]

Just had an update email from them.

Is there a no-cost option if I don’t want to upgrade?
A no-cost option will be available for all customers who do not want to use Gmail with their custom domain (for example, [email protected]), or the ability to manage multiple users. Customers who choose this option will retain access to the no-cost version of Google Workspace services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and additional Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube. You will also retain access to paid content such as movies purchased in the Google Play Store.

That's me knackered then.

Maybe Zoho.

This looks possible. I wonder if it's possible to download emails as linked by @beh and import them into Zoho.

 

[Trifid]

Filled out the survey and will see what is offered. Really don't want to pay for email, but not sure there is going to be an alternative elsewhere (if you want to use your own domain)?

It's a shame they stopped gmail being able to send on your domain, which is what I did. I have my Dad on legacy G Suite which will need sorting.

 

[Feek]

I've just successfully added one of my domains to Apple iCloud Mail. It says you can have up to five of them which is just the right number for me.

Now just to do it for all the family members on the other domains.

 

[Sinbad2000]

Cut my domain down to two users and am going to pay for it. It's not particularly onerous

 

[Feek]

Cut my domain down to two users and am going to pay for it.

What's it costing? When I looked, I'm sure it was over £3/user/month.

I pay for the top iCloud storage and shifting them over to there seems to be relatively straightforward. Even data migration is easy, I can just move the emails over using either Mac Mail or Mail on iOS.

 

[thenewoc]

Just had an update email from them.



That's me knackered then.


This looks possible. I wonder if it's possible to download emails as linked by @beh and import them into Zoho.

If you set up IMAP and use thunderbird for both the old and new could you not just copy and paste them across?

 

[j0s]

What's it costing? When I looked, I'm sure it was over £3/user/month.

I pay for the top iCloud storage and shifting them over to there seems to be relatively straightforward. Even data migration is easy, I can just move the emails over using either Mac Mail or Mail on iOS.

This is what is offered.

8 Apr 2022–8 Oct 2022 £0.00 GBP per user/month (£4.60 GBP 100.00% off)
8 Oct 2022–8 Oct 2023 £2.30 GBP per user/month (£4.60 GBP 50.00% off)
After 8 Oct 2023 £4.60 GBP per user/month

 

[thenewoc]

So when I looked at one of my domains, the simplest one with just two standard user accounts, so neither were Google Groups based email addresses, I generally followed these instructions to consolidate the emails first before deleting the unwanted account which then took care of migrating the Google Drive files and some other stuff (perhaps calendars, recollection is rusty) for the deleted account.

https://www.cubebackup.com/docs/tutorials/transfer-gsuite-data-to-another-account/

Under "Gmail migration" I think you can ignore the comment about upgrading to Google Workspace or G Suite Basic to get Google Workspace data migration if you have a legacy free edition of G Suite. Maybe everyone has already been upgraded to Google Workspace anyway by now and the comment is out of date as I didn't find it necessary to upgrade my free legacy account first.

You should be able to use the above process to either consolidate standard user email accounts or as a process to transfer each to an ordinary free Gmail account. Of course if you consolidate accounts, the one you delete will no longer enable you to receive emails for it unless you set up an alias in one the accounts you are keeping. Unless you can update third parties where the unwanted email addresses have been used it may be an idea to set up an alias for each on an account which will be remaining.

If you are wanting to stay with Google you may also consider consolidating any generic email accounts ([email protected]) you may have inadvertently created because you didn't understand or avoided use of Google Groups. You can use Google Groups to create any required generic accounts such as [email protected] and give standard user accounts access to each group as required. Ensure you set up the Group permissions correctly so that the public / anyone can send into the Group but cannot see the posts within the Group. Also set the permissions for your internal user accounts to be able to see the posts within the Group. I think you can do this on a per user basis or set up a permissions group and add relevant users to that and assign the permissions to the permissions group. There is a slight gotcha with Groups though in that I believe you can only migrate one way (in) so be sure it's what you want if you choose this route. The Groups are a feature rather than a separate account so you don't pay for such email addresses. So you could have [email protected] & [email protected] plus [email protected], [email protected] and because these last two are set up as Groups you'd only actually have two user accounts that relate to specific people to pay for.

The last time I looked it seemed as though you could use a free Gmail account to send email as your domain, somewhere in Gmail settings, inbox settings I think. If this is possible and you have full DNS access on your domain then you may be able to set up email forwarding DNS entries. If that is still possible then that would take care of outgoing emails in the Gmail settings and incoming in the DNS email forwarding settings. This would be the totally free option, save for domain name cost and/or separate DNS service costs if domain isn't hosted somewhere with decent DNS management. The drawback would be that each Gmail account would be independent and not governed under the control of a domain admin.

 

[Feek]

If you set up IMAP and use thunderbird for both the old and new could you not just copy and paste them across?

Aye, I have both accounts configured in my mail app and am doing that now. The family will be just as easy to do but I'm using myself as a guinea pig.

Even data migration is easy, I can just move the emails over using either Mac Mail or Mail on iOS.

£4.60 GBP per user/month

Stuff that, even with just your two accounts, that's over £110/year. I'd be looking at at least double.

 

[beh]

The "no-cost option" they're trumpeting is just a regular google account? I thought they might have come up with something a bit better than that.

 

[j0s]

I was looking at the Microsoft for families option, allows 6 users of one domain for £80 but i have 2 domains, which both have less than 7 users, so not sure what to do just yet

 

[JaffaJedi]

Same boat. Either icloud+ or 365 family would be fine but none offer catchall, and family needs domain hosted on GoDaddy.
The search goes on

 

[Feek]

Right, the next issue I've found with Apple iCloud Mail.

My wife has her own domain, I started the process of adding that domain to iCloud Mail and when I put her email address in, it told me that address is already is use by another AppleID. Interesting. Checked her own iCloud settings and it's correct, her domain email had been added as a contact for recovery, FaceTime, Messages, etc. That's fair enough but I figured I could remove it, add her domain, add her email address and then re-link it back.

Removed it, tried to add to her account and I still get the same message. It turns out that if you remove an email address from someone's iCloud account, it can't be added elsewhere within the entire Apple ecosystem for an entire year!

So I tried to put it back. Nope, Apple won't allow that either. It says it's not available and going by the above, it won't be allowed for a year. It's a bit crazy, it's just taking an email address from one account and adding it back to the same account.

This isn't going to be as straightforward as I hoped.

/multiple edits for clarity