WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ALUMNI?

Google has announced a substantial change to its services and will stop offering unlimited storage for university accounts. Due to this change, a 5 GB quotas will start getting placed on September 12th and users will begin to receive warnings. However, storage limits will not be enforced until Nov. 30, 2022.

Google Workspace (FAU Owl Apps) storage is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, and other Google apps. When your account reaches its storage limit you will not be able to create or store new files and those with Owl Mail (Gmail) will be unable to send or receive messages. This change also impacts Google’s shared drives.

Additionally, for the security of former students and the institution, Alumni Google accounts will be disabled, and removed after 6 months of inactivity. To continue to have your account marked active, please ensure you log in periodically to your OwlMail account at https://mail.google.com/a/fau.edu using for your FAU credentials for your account to continue to be marked as active.

If your Google Workspace (FAU Owl Apps) account storage usage exceeds 5 GB, you must take action to prevent disruption to your Google Workspace services. You should review your current storage usage and delete any unnecessary files in Drive, Shared Drives, Gmail, and Photos:

  1. Confirm your personal data usage in Google Drive Storage Settings .
  2. Review and delete large or unnecessary files from your Google Drive .
  3. Review and delete files from shared drives .
  4. Google Takeout makes it easy to export everything stored in your Google Account and move it to your storage (e.g., a personal Google account).
  5. Use Google's manage files in your Drive storage guide to search for and delete unnecessary or large emails.