For employees: Tips to start your online storage cleanup
From: Division of Information Technology
In response to announcements of new, higher-cost licensing models for colleges and universities, Virginia Tech is embarking on a program that will implement storage limits on university Google Workspace accounts over the coming months. Online storage limitations will also extend to Microsoft 365 accounts in 2025.
This notice focuses solely on cleaning up your storage in Google, since those changes are coming first. Your storage limit in Google will be dependent on decisions made by your department. Department storage plans will be enforced starting in March 2024. To help your department prepare, now is the time to begin cleaning up unneeded files, taking inventory of shared drives, and planning for your future storage needs. You can begin cleaning up your Google Workspace with the following tips:
- Check your Google storage totals. Note that your storage total is comprised of your data in Gmail, Photos, and Google My Drive.
- Delete unneeded files from your Drive. You may do this manually by sending files to the trash, downloading them individually, or using Google Takeout to relocate folders or groups of files. If you are storing sensitive information, please contact appropriate personnel within your department to determine how best to safeguard the information.
- Delete unneeded data from Gmail. Even if you don't use Gmail as your preferred email, you still have an account, and might have data in there. Reduce your storage by deleting messages and emptying your trash manually from time to time. Gmail has a known issue with trash not emptying automatically, even when set to do so.
- Empty the Google Photos app on your Virginia Tech account. Access to the Photos app at Virginia Tech will end completely, and any photos remaining in your VT Google Photos app will be lost once access ends. Make sure to export any photos that are important to you or to Virginia Tech and delete the rest. Employees that are keeping photos within their Google Workspace must move them to My Drive or a shared drive within their department’s allocation. Options for exporting photos include:
- Using Google Takeout to export your photos.
- Transferring photos to a personal Google account (for personal photos only)
- Review shared drives that you are associated with. You can view your roles and storage totals in shared drives by logging into the MyCAT tool. Please review what you have stored in shared drives that list you as a member or manager. Through the tool, you can inform your department’s IT personnel which drives should be kept, and which should be deleted. Also, you can delete unneeded shared drives that you manage using these instructions.
If you have questions or need help with Google Workspace or another IT service at Virginia Tech, contact 4Help. Detailed information about upcoming changes to email, calendaring, and storage are available on the Google and Microsoft license changes website.