Without prior notice, Google Drive implemented a hard file restriction.

Without prior notice, Google Drive implemented a hard file restriction.

According to a report from Ars Technica, Google has set a strict limit on the number of files that users of Drive can store in one account. Several paid Drive users found themselves abruptly locked out of fresh file uploads when the rollout suddenly occurred.

The file limit was not a bug, contrary to what some Reddit users believed, according to Ars Technica. The restriction was "a protection to avoid misuse of our system in a way that would harm the stability and safety of the system," a Google official told the outlet.

The sudden rollout that has been affecting accounts for months may sound frightening, but it isn't. Google has set a 5 million file limit. The business informed Ars Technica that "the number of impacted customers here is vanishingly small" and that the average user has nowhere near that number in their Drive account.

Yet, Google made no public announcement prior to the unexpected deployment. According to Ars Technica, the download limit has been in effect since at least February, and consumers have been abandoned without warning. A particularly unsettling discovery for individuals who pay high prices for Google Workspace plan bundles.

The company offered more clarification, saying to Ars Technica that the cap does not apply to the total number of files in a drive, but rather to "how many objects one user can generate in any Drive."