It is in all discretion that Google Drive has established a limit to the number of files stored, for free and paid accounts. Some users will therefore no longer be able to use all the space for which they paid…
Since February, some Google Drive users have had the unpleasant surprise of receiving error messages when they try to add new files to their storage indicating that “The limit on the number of items, deleted or not, created by this account has been exceeded.” In March, the service indicated to them this time a “403 error” because their account “exceeded the creation limit of 5 million items”enjoining them move items to the trash and permanently delete them so you can create new ones. A message all the more surprising since it also concerned users who had paid for more storage space – sometimes several TB – including with Google One and Workspace. As the Redmond company had made no communication on this subject, they believed in a bug and therefore reported the various error messages to it. Well no, it’s not a bug, but a new limit added by the Web giant, which has decided to present its users with a fait accompli.
Google Drive: 5 million files maximum
Normally, the only limit Google Drive imposes is on storage size and a limit of 400,000 files, folders, and shortcuts in a shared drive. It is therefore a real surprise to be constrained to a maximum of 5 million elements! Contacted by Ars Technicathe company’s spokesperson confirmed the news, saying it was a “protective measure to prevent any misuse of our system that may impact the stability and security of the service”. It specifies that this limit applies to the “number of items a user can create in any player” not the total cap for all files on a single drive. Finally, “This limit does not affect the ability of the vast majority of our users to use their Google storage space. In practice, the number of users affected is extremely small”.
This new limit should not delight users and may be a problem for those who have subscribed to 30TB of storage, or even unlimited space, because it prevents them from storing a multitude of small files that do not weigh very heavy. Professional users in particular may quickly find themselves cramped. 5 million files weighing 4 KB only require 20 GB of storage. Still, Google should have communicated on the subject instead of doing it on the sly…