Tech giant, Amazon is now shutting down its consumer-focused file storage service, Amazon Drive, which will wind down over the next year. In an email to users, the company said that it was taking the opportunity to “more fully focus” its efforts on Amazon Photos, Amazon’s rival service to iCloud Photos and Google Photos. Amazon Drive customers have until December 31, 2023, to save their stored files; as of January 1, 2023, file uploading will cease to work.
Photos and videos on the File Storage Service Will be Transferred to Amazon Photos
Photos and videos on the said file storage service will be transferred to Amazon Photos automatically, but other file types must be downloaded manually from the Amazon Drive web dashboard. Users who currently subscribe to paid Amazon Drive plans can cancel their subscriptions now for a potential refund. Cancellation of the file storage service can be done on the web or through the Android and iOS apps — at least before the apps are removed from the Google Play and App Store, respectively, on October 31.
Amazon launched its file storage service, Amazon Drive as Amazon Cloud Drive in 2011, initially offering pay-as-you-need tiered storage plans both for Amazon Prime and non-Prime users. November 2014 saw the rollout of an API that allowed third-party developers to integrate Amazon Drive into their own apps to save things like game settings, preferences, and other app state data in the cloud.
Amazon Drive Had Severe Competition With iCloud and Google Drive
Unlimited plans for Amazon Drive were introduced in 2015 and then discontinued two years later. Storage became limited to 5 GB for non-photo uploads a short time afterward. Amazon Prime members and Fire Tablet owners, however. retained free unlimited photo storage. The competition was likely a factor in the demise of Amazon’s file storage service, Amazon Drive.
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