Many of us got spoiled by Google for over a decade with their free G Suite legacy edition, where we could use Google’s services with our own domain for free. This year Google announced that the free ride will be over on the 1st of August this year.
My thought was “it was good while it lasted”, while many people actually banded together and started talks of joint legal action against Google. A bit weird suing somebody that provided the service for free and has decided not to do so anymore but Google heard the voices and decided to add some wiggle room in regards to simply shutting down its service.
It’s quite simple. If you use your free legacy edition for business of some sort you’d better pony up, if not, you are welcome to use it for personal use for free.
From the Google Workspace Help…
If you’re using the G Suite legacy free edition for non-commercial purposes, you can opt out of the transition to Google Workspace by clicking here (requires a super administrator account) or going to the Google Admin console. You can continue using your custom domain with Gmail, retain access to no-cost Google services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and keep your purchases and data.
If you don’t take any action, your account will be suspended starting on August 1, 2022. To reactivate your account, you will either need to upgrade to Google Workspace or opt out of the transition for non-commercial use.
G Suite legacy free edition is only intended for personal non-commercial use. If you’re using G Suite legacy free edition for business purposes, we will transition your account to Google Workspace. G Suite legacy free edition does not include support, and in the future we may remove certain business functionality.
Did you get an email telling you to upgrade even though you opted out?
Despite confirming the opt-out, you may have still received an email beginning with the following:
“Dear Administrator,We previously notified you that you’ll need to upgrade from the G Suite >legacy free edition to Google Workspace by June 1, 2022, or your account >would be automatically upgraded. However, we’ve recently updated our timeline >for the transition and you now have until June 27, 2022 to take action…..”
But what if I already upgraded to a business version…?!
The good news is it can be reverted! Here are a few simple steps on how to do it;
-
Log in to your admin console
-
Scroll down to Support and click on Connect with Help Assistant
-
The Help Assistant window will open. Scroll down and click on Contact support
-
When prompted, select Questions about GSuite legacy edition
-
When prompted, select I used GSuite legacy edition for personal use
-
Confirm your choice when prompted
-
Done. You should receive a confirmation email from Google