Did you know that Google allows you to store all of your documents, photos and more in a way that will allow you to access them from anywhere? You can even share them with family members! Below we’ll discuss Google Drive storage options and where to find adaptive technology training.
Google Drive is cloud storage provided by Google. This storage solution allows you to save files online and access them anywhere from any device. You can use up to 15GB of free storage.
Google One is essentially the paid version of Google Drive. It gives you extra storage (beyond the free 15GB) to use across Drive, Gmail, and Photos. You can share this storage with up to five family members.
Plans begin at 100GB for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. If you need to store a lot of photos and videos, Google’s premium plan gives you 2TB for $9.99 a month / $99.99 a year.
If you’re still on a free Google account and don’t want to switch yet, you can go to the Google One page to take advantage of a tool that may help you free up some extra storage space.
If you want to share your storage, you first must create a shared family group. Here’s how:
-
Go to Google’s family plan page and click on “Get started.”
-
Next, click on “Create family group.”
You can invite up to five family members if they have Google accounts. There will be some suggestions listed, but you can type in a name (if they’re in your contacts list) or an email.
-
The person you invited will be sent an email, and you’ll be emailed when they accept the invitation. The invitation will expire in two weeks.
-
Once you’ve set up your family account, you can then set up your shared storage:
-
In your Google One account, click on the settings icon on the left side.
-
Look for “Share Google One with family” under the “Manage Family Settings” drop-down and toggle it on.
To enable shared storage, go to settings and look for “Share Google One with family.”
Now members of your family can also use the additional storage. Once they use up their free 15GB, they will gain access to the additional storage that your account gives them — it does not mean that you have access to their files, unless they share them directly with you.
If you want to see how much of your storage each family member is using, go to your Google One account, click on “Storage” on the left side, and select the down arrow next to “Family Storage.”
You can see how much storage you have left by going to your Google Drive page and looking at the Storage statistic showing at the bottom of the left-hand column
Now that you know how much space you have left, you can figure out what you want to do next. If you’re getting close to your limit, do you want to pay Google for more storage space? Find a different service to store your photos? It’s up to you.
One word of advice: before you do anything else, try to get rid of any old, unwanted or duplicate files hanging around in your Google storage. You’d be amazed at how much space you might save.
Outlook Enrichment’s adaptive technology trainers can show you how to make the most of your Google storage. Anyone with vision loss can come to Enrichment’s open lab every Friday from 2-4 p.m. You can also schedule an appointment for a one on one adaptive technology training session, at a time that works for you.