GOOGLE DRIVE AND FAMILY SHARED STORAGE

Google launched an offer when you purchase Google Drive storage to allow family members to be allowed to this storage for free. This is really beneficial as the storage offering jumps from 200 GB offering to 2 TB offering. In order to put this in perspective we have to understand the difference between Gigabyte (GB) and Terabyte (TB). A single TB is equal to 1024 GB. Therefore, this jump is 900% more storage. Many users may need under 500 GB but over 200 GB. This indicates the storage limit jump is too large of a jump. Therefore sharing this storage is the best option for users.

But, Google has put a wrench in the gears. They require the "family" member to have a personal GMAIL account in order to take advantage of the shared storage offering. This is a benefit and a problem. The benefit is security - no outside email service required to setup shared access. Now the bad part is Google has allowed people to activate their current email address (like anything the ends with @hotmail.com) into the Gmail system for many years. Due to this fact, many users are most likely going to become confused since they may have already used the non-gmail email address to access Google Drive in the past. Very little information is available when setting up Family Members in a paid Google Drive account. You will be able to complete the setup process but the Google Drive storage limit will never change - most likely will show 15 GB and offer to sell you additional storage.

This offering is a great idea, but it has some pit falls as well. Very limited is how it can be used but very generous in the amount of storage.