Recent reports have been surfacing over the past few months of users who have become unable to access their Google Drive accounts, citing that the site presents them with an "Upload Failed" prompt when any creation action is undertaken.
User /u/ra13 on Reddit found that around the 14th February 2023, Google started to apply a limit to the total number of files that you can store on the platform, even if you sit below the total capacity limit.
They quoted an Issue Tracker link that was raised around the same time, with people commenting and believing that it was just a bug that would be fixed in due course. However, there were a few reports that the total limit of files is reported to be five million files. This also led to them being presented with the below prompt and also being asked to delete a whopping two million files to continue using Google Drive.
The Google Drive FAQ doesn"t directly reference this cap and only discusses the storage limits in file size only. However, a spokesperson from Google Workspace did say that the cap was put in place "to maintain strong performance and reliability." This is not the same cap that Google Workspace users currently face for Shared Drives.
Update: The Google Drive team have since tweeted that it has reverted this change for the time being, however it is still looking at other approaches:
We recently rolled out a system update to Drive item limits to preserve stability and optimize performance. While this impacted only a small number of people, we are rolling back this change as we explore alternate approaches to ensure a great experience for all.
— Google Drive (@googledrive) April 4, 2023
Source: Reddit