** The problem

I fell for the bait. In I clicked on the “free” “Try Gemini in Gmail” option. Google upgraded my $2.99 200GB storage only Google One subscription to $19.99/mo T2B + Gemini. I quickly determined I didn’t want Gemini and tried to go back. No dice. The only options were the default 15Gb free storage or the $19.99 trojan horse.

** Quick ad-hoc solitions

Luckily, I had a second, seldom used google account. Under this account, I was still able to sign up for the 200GB plan for $2.99/month. They (claim to) have a family sharing feature, which allowes me to share the new 200GB subscription with my original account. We’ll see if it works.

** Backups and Alternatives

• Doing Google Takeout, again :: I’m doing another Google Takeout in case things go wrong (again). Turns out you can have it create .tgf files up up to 50GB instead of 2 or 4 GB max .zip files. Much better.

• Amazon Photos :: I turned Amazon Photos back on. Not sure why I turned it off. I have a prime membership which gives me unlimited photo storage. But they do want me to pay $59/year for videos.

• Finally Ditch Google? :: I’ve been threatening to completely ditch google for a while. Maybe this is the time to do it ?

• Open Source/Self hosting solutions? :: Maybe it’s time to look into self hosting and/or things like NextCloud or PixelFed? I still run a digital ocean droplet. I’ve run various servers, networking and security solutions/home labs in the past. I’ve also proven why it’s good to let other people professionally run your infrastructure. What to do?