How Google drive's new file limit may affect users' ability to store data

If you're a user of Google Drive, you might have recently noticed a new message on your account, indicating that you've reached your "creation limit."

This new restriction has been imposed by Google Drive to limit the number of files users can store on their accounts.

Whether you're a free user or a paid Google Workspace or Google One subscriber, this limitation has affected several users, triggering issues with the cloud storage platform.

Google Drive's File Limit Restriction

Google Drive, the cloud storage platform from tech giant Google, helps users back up data that's unavailable on local storage.

However, the company has recently put a restriction on the number of files users can store on their accounts. Currently, Google allows users to store up to five million items on the platform, regardless of file size and type.

If a user hits the five million item mark, Google Drive will show a message that reads, "This account has exceeded the creation limit of 5 million items.

To make space for new items, the user needs to delete some of their existing files permanently by moving them to the trash. Until they do this, they won't be able to add any new files to their account.

User Reports And How They're Affected

Several users have reported facing issues with Google Drive's new file limit restriction on multiple channels, including Reddit and Google's Issue Tracker.

One user reported having seven million items stored in their account before the restriction was imposed. The user can't add any new files to their Google Drive account and can't access it normally. They can only view their files in "read-only" mode.

Why Google Is Putting Such Restriction?

Google says it's making a change to protect its system from being used in a way that could harm its stability and safety.

This change is meant to prevent people from misusing the system. The company has also mentioned that the number of users affected by this change is "vanishingly small."

Also, Google has clarified that this limit applies only to the number of items one user can create in any Drive, but doesn't affect the total file limit in Drive.