Google Photos is known for offering unlimited free high-quality backup of photos and videos. The unlimited free restrictions are that photos compress to 16-megapixels if they are above that size and videos are resized to high-definition 1080p if they are higher than that size.
Now there is a new restriction. Certain video formats will no longer be supported. “Unsupported videos uploaded after December 6, 2018 take up storage space,” wrote Google in its updated Google Photos support page.
If users want to free up that space, they will have to delete it by selecting those files and tapping on the trash can icon.
The supported video formats that are supported by Google Photos include MPEG4 (MP4), MPG, MOD, MMV, TOD, ASF, DIVX, MOV, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, M2T, M2TS, MTS, MKV, AVI, and WMV. Unsupported videos include RAW and VOD videos that are uncompressed. It is rare that people are uploading RAW video files from their smartphone devices so this subtle change may not have much of an effect on many users.
Why did Google Photos make this change? Some users may have ripped their DVDs and uploaded it to Google Photos so it can be watched through that service.
Back in 2015, Microsoft also backtracked on its unlimited storage option for OneDrive. Originally, Microsoft said that it was offering paid Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers unlimited OneDrive storage. Then Microsoft said that a “small number of users” backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings on OneDrive, which exceeded 75 terabytes per user (14,000 times the average). So the unlimited storage option was dropped to 1 terabyte.
