Amazon, which is mainly known in the world for its e-commerce platform and other products such as Kindle, Alexa, Appstore and Prime Video, also has a personal cloud storage serviceBut this one won’t live much longer.
The company founded by Jeff Bezos has announced that after 11 years it will stop offering Amazon Drive. The objective of this change, as explained by Amazon, is to focus on storing photos and videos with Amazon Photos, so we will lose the ability to upload other types of files.
If you are an Amazon Drive user, you may be wondering what will happen to your files, how long you will be able to use the service and what are the alternatives currently available. In this article we will try to answer all these questions. Let us begin.
Amazon Drive shutdown seeks to give Amazon Photos a boost
Amazon Drive began operating in 2011 as a cloud storage service that would allow you to save, manage and share photos, videos and any other type of file. It currently offers 5 GB of free storage and different paid plans to expand storage.
Now the company has begun to warn that Amazon Drive will stop working completely on December 31, 2023. The process will begin on October 31 this year, with the removal of the app from the iOS and Android stores. Later, from January 31, 2023, users will no longer be able to upload files to the platform, although they will be able to view and download previously uploaded files.
However, Amazon Photos will continue to live on as the natural replacement for Amazon Drive, although the limitation is that we can only manage image and video files. It is currently offered with 5 GB of free storage shared with Amazon Drive.
In addition, users have the possibility to subscribe to different storage plans that range from 1.99 euros per month for 100 GB to 2,999.70 per year for 30 TB. Amazon Prime members, who recently increased in price and we did the math for savings so you don’t have to, get “unlimited full-resolution photo storage.”
Alternatives to Amazon Drive
If you need to store more than just photos and videos, you will have to resort to an alternative before December 31, 2023. It should be noted that cloud storage has changed in recent years and these are some of the options that we have on the horizon.
google drive. One of the best known today, perhaps. With your Google account you access 15 GB of free storage. Plus, you can opt for Google One plans that offer additional space. Since €1.99 per month you can get 100 GB.
It should be noted that the available storage will be what you use with all of your Google products, such as Drive, Gmail, and Photos, the latter of which has long offered unlimited storage. And, as expected, you have clients for desktop and mobile devices.
OneDrive. The Microsoft service is another alternative to consider. One of its main advantages is that it is integrated into the Redmond ecosystem. It offers us 5 GB of free storage and also allows us to expand it from 2 euros per month for an additional 100 GB.
One feature of their plans is that the most competitive ones include Office 365 (not the one for 2 euros per month). Thus, when choosing this alternative we can also pay a little more for family or personal alternatives and have access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype, Outlook, etc.
iCloudDrive. If you are an Apple user, you may have thought of iCloud. Here we also have clients for different operating systems and 5 GB for free. From 0.99 euros per month you can get 50 GB of storagealthough those in Cupertino also offer competitive options such as AppleOnewhich brings together several of its services.
drop box. Although the service has been focusing on improving its options for storing photos, it also allows us to upload files. Free storage is only 2GB. Since $11.99 per month we can receive 2000 GB of space for private users.
Mega. You may understand Mega as a file sharing service, but nothing prevents you from buying some of its plans to save what you want. With your account you access 20 GB of storage and you can also pay to get between 400 GB and 16 TB of storage.
In Xataka | The 55 Google Drive keyboard shortcuts to organize your files in the cloud
Add Comment