Moving from Google's G Suite legacy free edition to something else

This article is a little different from most: I'm using it to keep notes about  the process and discoveries and decisions I make as I move my blogs from G Suite legacy free edition to alternatives. Some of them will use to Google Workspace. But some are not making anything like enough money for that to be an option. So I'll be investigating what to do for them, too.

It's going to be edited and expanded a LOT of times over the next few days.

Messages about Google's move from free G-suite to paid Workspace accounts

I've received a number of emails from Google about the move from free G-suite to paid Workspace accounts.  Keeping track of them, and the details, is tedious.   So here's a post to save them in:

 26 May 2022

From: The Google Workspace Team <workspace-noreply@google.com>
Sent: Thursday 26 May 2022 21:50
To: <<the email account listed as a secondary account for one of my blogs>>
Subject: [Action Required] Upgrade your G Suite legacy free edition subscriptions to Google Workspace by June 27, 2022

Avoid account suspension and enter your billing details in your Admin Console.

Dear Administrator,

We previously notified you that you would need to upgrade from the G Suite legacy free edition to Google Workspace by June 1, 2022 or your account would be automatically upgraded. However, we've recently updated our timeline for the transition and you now have until June 27, 2022 to take action.

As your account has been inactive for quite some time, we are now reaching out to your secondary email address.

What do I need to do?

For businesses, the G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available after June 27, 2022 (updated from June 1, 2022). We recommend you upgrade now to a Google Workspace subscription that meets your needs. Upgrading from your G Suite legacy free edition to Google Workspace will only take you a few short steps and is not disruptive to your end-users.

When you've identified your preferred subscription follow these steps:

1. Go to your Admin console.
2. Select your new subscription offering.
3. Enter your billing information.

If you take no action by June 27, 2022, we’ll begin to upgrade your organization seamlessly to a new Google Workspace subscription. The new subscription will be based on what you currently use with your G Suite legacy free edition.

In addition to recent innovations like smart canvas, meetings in documents, and dedicated Spaces to help organize people, topics and projects, Google Workspace includes more storage, increased security, 24/7 support, and more. To complete the transition and avoid account suspension, switch now and enter your billing details in your Admin Console before August 1, 2022. You’ll have limited time discount options to support you in this transition.

If you’re an individual or family using your account for non-commercial purposes, you can continue using the G Suite legacy free edition and opt out of the transition to Workspace in the Google Admin console before June 27, 2022.

If no action is taken, we’ll begin upgrading your organization seamlessly to a new Google Workspace subscription starting June 27, 2022. To complete your upgrade and avoid account suspension, you'll need to set up Google Workspace billing before August 1, 2022.

In case that you need to reactivate your account, you’ll need to log into the Admin console and enter a valid form of payment.

Qualifying educational institutions and nonprofits have the option to migrate to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals or Workspace for Nonprofits without service disruption.

Timeline Summary

Date	Action
Before June 27, 2022	Upgrade to a new Google Workspace subscription or opt out of the transition.
Before August 1, 2022	Complete your upgrade by setting your Google Workspace billing.

FAQs

Visit the help center for information on the G Suite legacy free edition to Google Workspace transition.

We’re here to help

If you have questions or need assistance, please Contact Google Workspace support. When you call or submit your support case, use reference issue number 205265775. If you have trouble accessing your administrator account, please refer to instructions to reset your administrator password.

Thanks for choosing Google Workspace.

– The Google Workspace Team

January 2022

We launched our G Suite legacy free edition —the original Google Apps offering for businesses and schools— 16 years ago. In 2012 we discontinued this service, and we will now transition all remaining users to an upgraded Google Workspace paid subscription based on your usage.

What does this mean for my organization?

In 2020, we introduced —Google Workspace— and tailored our offerings to provide more options to fit our customers’ needs. Google Workspace includes all the features you already use, plus several new capabilities including more storage, increased security, 24/7 support, and more.

Upgrading from your G Suite legacy free edition to Google Workspace will only take you a few short steps and is not disruptive to your end-users. To support you in this transition, you will have discount options for 12 months after July 1, 2022.

What do I need to do?

To avoid disruption and maintain your account(s), please upgrade to Google Workspace by May 1, 2022. Begin the upgrade by reviewing the transition help center article, and selecting the option that best suits your organization’s needs. When you've identified your preferred subscription:

1. Go to your Admin console.
2. Select your new subscription offering.
3. Enter your billing information.

Once you’re upgraded, you can use your new Google Workspace subscription and functionality at no-cost until at least July 1, 2022.

If you take no action by May 1, 2022, Google will begin upgrading your organization seamlessly to a new Google Workspace subscription. The new subscription will be based on what you currently use with your G Suite legacy free edition.

If you do not enter your billing details before July 1, 2022, your subscription will be suspended.

If your needs have changed and you do not want to upgrade to a Google Workspace subscription, you can export your organization’s data with the takeout feature.

Moving Blogger custom-domain and email service from DomainDiscount24 to DreamHost

This article tracks the process and learnings as I tranfer my Blogger related services (ie custom website name and assoicated email addresss) from DomainDiscount24 to a new service - so far I've chosen DreamHost for this.

Note:  most of my posts on this blog are completed how-to articles.  This is a little different, in that it's a work-in-progress.   So far, I've transferred one domain that didn't have an email address, and started the process for one that does.   I've published now (because I suspect other people may be looking for similar info - now), but will be updating this post as I learn more.

Moving a web-address and associated blog from DomainDiscount24 to DreamHost
Made using icons from MaxPixel -  CC0 Public Domain

Using a custom domain for something other than your Blogger blog

This article is about how you can use a custom domain that was purchased through Google / Blogger for something other than a Blogger blog.

Look at the receipients of the "registration will renew automatically in X days" email to work out your domain-administration login name

This article is about how you can work out what Google Account to use to check custom domain renewal details from the reminder emails that Google sends in the month before the domain registration expires.

How to re-direct an old custom domain - and all its posts - to a new one

This article describes options for making link to a blog's old URL automatically point to the blog's new URL after a custom domain change.

What "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" really means

This article explains what "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" means when you see it while setting up a custom domain for your blog - and what you can do to fix it.

Using an URL from domainDiscount24 for a blog

This article shows Blogger users, who have purchased a domain through Google Apps using domainDiscount24 (dd24.com), how to set up the 2nd CNAME statement that is needed by  Blogger's custom-domain verification step. 

Most of the information also applies to any who purchased a domain from Key Systems / DomainDiscount24 / dd24 and wants to use it for a Blogger blog.

Making custom domains work without the www at the start

This Quick-Tip is about an issue that some people have had with their "naked" custom domain not re-directing to the www-at-the-start version, and how to fix it using a feature in your Google Apps account.

Using a domain purchased from another domain registrar or blogging-platform for your Blogger blog

This article is about how to use a domain (URL) that was purchased outside of Blogger / Google as the custom-domain for your blog.
 

Google Blogger / Apps access to country-specific domains

Today, Google Apps announced that we can now purchase a wider range of global and country-specific domains through them - previously they only offered a more limited set of the global domains. And now they're cheaper, too: domains registration is $8/year instead if $10.

To do this, they've partnered with a new-to-them domain registrar http://www.domaindiscount24.com - instead of eNom and GoDaddy, who they used before

If you buy a domain via Google Apps, and DomainDiscount24.com is the registrar, then

• It comes pre-set up to work with Google's tools (mail, apps, sites, etc)
• You need to use DomainDiscount24.com's administration tools if you want to make any changes to the domain set-up
• You continue to use Google Apps domain management tools to manage the Google Services that are available to users in the domain (eg enabling/disabling Blogger)

Can we use one of these domains for Blogger?

I'd guess so: I'm pretty sure that Sites, like Blogger, requires that the domain-registrar provide DNS-hosting and the ability to edit CNAME and ANAME records.  You simply have to go through the same process that you need to use if you purchase a domain directly from any registrar.

(I'm going to test this very soon, there's a .co.nz domain that I've been thinking about for a while>

Will they work automatically with Blogger?

Not always: domain setup is a complex thing, and it's hard to predict if you will get the dreaded "Another blog is already hosted as this address" message:  I've purchased a domain via Google Apps before and and it work perfectly with Blogger - and I've had just the opposite experience, too.

If you get stuck, try either

• Use the information in this recent article from Chuck at Nitecruzr (he's one of the best for resolving custom domain issues)
• Going to the Blogger Product Forum: explain your problem and URL and ask the experts there to take a look.

Can we use this new registrar to buy country-specific domains inside Blogger?

Not at the moment, and - there's been no announcement from Blogger about it.

(Sideline:   I just tested it, and found that eNom is no longer offered as an option for domain-purchase under Blogger's switch-to-custom-domain track.   This means that GoDaddy, who not have a tool to make custom domain purchases easier, are now the only option inside Blogger - so I can see why Google might be looking to bring another registrar-partner on board.)

What domains are now available to purchase via Google Apps:

Global
.com    .info   .org    .net     .mobi     .biz     .name     .cc    .tv


Asia-Pacific
India: .in .co.in .org.in .net.in
New Zealand: .co.nz
Taiwan: .com.tw
Japan: .jp

Latin America
Colombia .co .com.co
Mexico:   .com.mx .mx

Europe
Belgium: .be
Switzerland: .ch
Czech Republic: .cz
Germany / Deutchland .de
Spain / Espana .es and .com.es
Republic of Montenegro: .me (though it has obvious wider appeal to English speakers!)
The Netherlands .nl
Poland .pl

Are domains for all countries available - why not?

There are still far more countries not on the list than on it.

I'm not surprised that there is no sign of Ireland (.ie) on the list -  these domains are hard to get.  I do manage one .ie site with Blogger:  the domain was obtained for a community group that doesn't have a company registration number, but which does have letterhead, a constitution and a well-connected chairman.   For it, I've found that LetsHost.ie provides the necessary domain management tools and their support people were helpful and didn't turn up their noses when I told them I was using it for a Blogger site.

Disappointing ommissions: Australia (.com.au) and England/Britain (.co.uk) - I'm not sure what the story is with these, or which registrars provide the tools needed to let you use a domain purchased from them with blogger.

Enabling Blogger on Google Apps domains

For Google Apps accounts, access to Blogger is controlled by the domain administrator.  This article shows why domain administrators may want to turn off Blogger access, for their domains - and describes how to enable Blogger access if required.

Google Apps, Google Accounts and Blogger

This article is about Google Apps:  what it is, how to access it, and what the account-names look like.   It discusses the great similarity between Google and Google Apps accounts, and looks at some of the small differences between them and how these relate to Blogger.

Auto-renewing your blog's custom domain

You can make sure that your custom domain name is (or isn't) automatically renewed each year, if you purchased it through Blogger or through Google Apps.

Switching your blog from one custom domain to another

This article is about how you can change a Blogger blog to use a different custom domain.

Setting up AdSense for parked domains

This article is no longer current.   It was about setting up AdSense on a domain that you own, but are not using.

However this feature of AdSense was withdrawn in early 2012, so the feature is no longer available.

The information below was correct until then, but has not been update since.

How to change the credit or debit card that is used for custom domain purchases or renewals from Google

This article about changing the default credit-card that is used for purchases that you make through Google Wallet (previously Checkout).  

It is written for Blogger users who have purchased custom domains through Google, but the information applies to anyone who has made a purchase from Google Wallet, and wants to keep their details updated so they can be used again in future.

Setting up a custom domain on Blogger - for domains bought through Google before 2015

This article is about domain administration for personal website addressed purchased through Blogger before 2015.