When will iCloud get upgraded free storage?

[Siderz]

I've been thinking about this for a while and, while I'm (sort of) doing fine with about 900MB left, would be nice to see an upgrade.

The reason I say "sort of" is because I'm thinking of ditching Google Drive for Pages, but I'd need more storage for that. Not sure if it's a good idea to upgrade my storage now or wait and see if we get more storage some time in the near future?

(Also a while back I was looking at some really old posts from the old iDisk/.Mac days when there was only like 100MB and it was upgraded to 1GB. Will be funny in the future when we look back at a post like this and see how small 5GB is!)

 

[Bear]

I kind of doubt Apple will be increasing the free storage for iCloud since selling extra storage is one way they make money. That's one of the reasons I do my backups to my Mac instead of iCloud.

 

[Siderz]

I kind of doubt Apple will be increasing the free storage for iCloud since selling extra storage is one way they make money.

This isn't the first time I've seen a similar statement.

If they've done it before then they'll do it again, they can't keep at 5GB forever meanwhile competitors do a heck of a lot more.

 

[Jessica Lares]

This isn't the first time I've seen a similar statement.

If they've done it before then they'll do it again, they can't keep at 5GB forever meanwhile competitors do a heck of a lot more.

Apple doesn't want to be the host of millions and millions of files that people won't ever bother opening again. When .Mac was around, people were using it for documents, pictures, and small things. Now everyone expects to host their 100GB iTunes library, 100GB Steam library, and direct all their apps to save there.

100MB was upgraded to 1GB because file sizes got bigger. Most of my Adobe files are from 10MB to 50MB each today. My first digital camera (an Olympus) came with a 8MB SmartMedia card and could store 122 640 x 480 pictures in comparison.

But like I said, one of the growing problems is that while we're getting all this extra space everywhere, but people are just using it to dump stuff and create organization systems. The majority of the people who prefer those setups wold be better off with a small external hard drive or one of the bigger thumb drives.

After all, the only reason Dropbox, Box, and the others make money is because they're making you fear what you already have access to at reasonable prices. I have never had a hard drive fail on me in the last 23 years of my history of using computers. I have an external drive from 2008 still in working order, and I have 128MB thumb drives all over the place still.

They're also making you fear of "excess baggage" when the same amount of space they give you can easily be stuck in a pocket in your bag next to your device.

 

[ardchoille50]

There are reliable NAS solutions around these days, and the storage capacity (3TB) is impressive, in my opinion. I'll be looking into one of these solutions when my Mac mini arrives.

 

[Siderz]

Apple doesn't want to be the host of millions and millions of files that people won't ever bother opening again. When .Mac was around, people were using it for documents, pictures, and small things. Now everyone expects to host their 100GB iTunes library, 100GB Steam library, and direct all their apps to save there.

100MB was upgraded to 1GB because file sizes got bigger. Most of my Adobe files are from 10MB to 50MB each today. My first digital camera (an Olympus) came with a 8MB SmartMedia card and could store 122 640 x 480 pictures in comparison.

But like I said, one of the growing problems is that while we're getting all this extra space everywhere, but people are just using it to dump stuff and create organization systems. The majority of the people who prefer those setups wold be better off with a small external hard drive or one of the bigger thumb drives.

After all, the only reason Dropbox, Box, and the others make money is because they're making you fear what you already have access to at reasonable prices. I have never had a hard drive fail on me in the last 23 years of my history of using computers. I have an external drive from 2008 still in working order, and I have 128MB thumb drives all over the place still.

They're also making you fear of "excess baggage" when the same amount of space they give you can easily be stuck in a pocket in your bag next to your device.

I'm not gonna bother, you're completely overlooking the point of cloud services...completely overlooking.

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There are reliable NAS solutions around these days, and the storage capacity (3TB) is impressive, in my opinion. I'll be looking into one of these solutions when my Mac mini arrives.

I'm not looking for a NAS, I'm trying to have a discussion about whether or not iCloud's storage will be upgraded in the future...you'd have to be silly to buy and set up a NAS if all you're gonna do is host Pages files on it, something which iCloud does, something which Apple is encouraging you to do.

 

[ardchoille50]

I'm not gonna bother, you're completely overlooking the point of cloud services...completely overlooking.

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I'm not looking for a NAS, I'm trying to have a discussion about whether or not iCloud's storage will be upgraded in the future...you'd have to be silly to buy and set up a NAS if all you're gonna do is host Pages files on it, something which iCloud does, something which Apple is encouraging you to do.

Forgive me, you're right, I shouldn't have posted here seeing as how you're asking us to predict the future - which no one can possibly do.

 

[Siderz]

Forgive me, you're right, I shouldn't have posted here seeing as how you're asking us to predict the future - which no one can possibly do.

Do you act like this every time someone posts an iPhone prediction?

 

[Weaselboy]

This isn't the first time I've seen a similar statement.

If they've done it before then they'll do it again, they can't keep at 5GB forever meanwhile competitors do a heck of a lot more.

I could easily see a scenario where they change it from the current 5GB per account to 5GB per device. As it is now if you have multiple iOS devices and use iCloud backup the 5GB runs out pretty quickly.

 

[Siderz]

I could easily see a scenario where they change it from the current 5GB per account to 5GB per device. As it is now if you have multiple iOS devices and use iCloud backup the 5GB runs out pretty quickly.

This would make a lot of sense; someone might own several iPhones/iPads, they've spent all that money yet will have to end up spending more to back them all up, even though they're being more loyal than someone like me who has 1 iPad and 1 iPhone.

 

[Weaselboy]

This would make a lot of sense; someone might own several iPhones/iPads, they've spent all that money yet will have to end up spending more to back them all up, even though they're being more loyal than someone like me who has 1 iPad and 1 iPhone.

Even with one each it can be an issue. My daughter has an iPhone and an iPad and 5GB is not enough to do an iCloud backup of both. I had to turn iCloud backup off for her on the iPad to stay under the 5GB.

 

[Primejimbo]

I doubt it. Other also don't host pictures like they do. You use my photo stream, all those pictures don't go against you 5GB.

 

[NukeIT]

Even with one each it can be an issue. My daughter has an iPhone and an iPad and 5GB is not enough to do an iCloud backup of both. I had to turn iCloud backup off for her on the iPad to stay under the 5GB.

It may be her camera roll is too large, download all her pics to her computer and then re-sync them via iTunes. Then delete all from the camera roll. That should free up space in iCloud since "re-sync" pics are not backup in iCloud (since they are backup on your computers HDD)

 

[Siderz]

I doubt it. Other also don't host pictures like they do. You use my photo stream, all those pictures don't go against you 5GB.

Photostream isn't a good place to back up photos since they get deleted from Apple's servers after 30 days, if you do a restore then you're never getting them back.

 

[rctlr]

I've always considered iCloud a sync service between devices, I don't think it was really designed to be a storage service.

5GB has been ok for me with macbook, 2 mac minis, iPad and iPhone, totalling 3GB or backups and mail, and a few documents.

If it's picture backup, there's plenty of decent online places. Flickr are supplying 1 TB of storage for photos.


I like the idea of Apple changing their policy to 5GB per device, but could become unwieldy especially if there are people sharing desktops - I have several people using the mac minis, separate logins, separate iCloud accounts.

 

[Siderz]

I like the idea of Apple changing their policy to 5GB per device, but could become unwieldy especially if there are people sharing desktops - I have several people using the mac minis, separate logins, separate iCloud accounts.

iCloud doesn't do much storage stuff for a Mac other than with things like Mail, Automator, Text Edit, Preview etc., it's not doing full backups or anything which is what takes up most the storage.

I'm more thinking they could have pools for each iOS device, and then one big pool for everything else. Like maybe 3GB per iOS device and then 5GB for everything else.

 

[Primejimbo]

Photostream isn't a good place to back up photos since they get deleted from Apple's servers after 30 days, if you do a restore then you're never getting them back.

I think that was changed. I have photos on mine from Christmas still and that was way over 30 days ago.

 

[Siderz]

I think that was changed. I have photos on mine from Christmas still and that was way over 30 days ago.

It deletes from the server but not from the device.

 

[Weaselboy]

I've always considered iCloud a sync service between devices, I don't think it was really designed to be a storage service.

I agree it is not the best idea to have your only data backup in iCloud, but Apple is certainly encouraging that. They have even been making this push that you don't need a computer to own an iPad.

I like the idea of Apple changing their policy to 5GB per device, but could become unwieldy especially if there are people sharing desktops - I have several people using the mac minis, separate logins, separate iCloud accounts.

I did not mean 5GB per Mac, I meant per iOS device, since those iCloud backups seem to be what is using the most space.



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It may be her camera roll is too large, download all her pics to her computer and then re-sync them via iTunes. Then delete all from the camera roll. That should free up space in iCloud since "re-sync" pics are not backup in iCloud (since they are backup on your computers HDD)

Thanks... will give that a shot.

 

[impaler]

Google just lowered their prices, and Microsoft is offering "free unlimited" email...I think it's only a matter of time. 5GB doesn't cut it for any of us with more than one device. They're always lagging behind reasonable amounts of storage, though.

I knew I'd never have enough space to backup my iPad, iPhone, 1GB of iCloud mail I already have stored, etc., so I sucked it up and went with $40/year for 25GB of storage, and still have 17GB or so left. It's only $3.33/month, which to me is more than reasonable.

 

[Siderz]

Google just lowered their prices, and Microsoft is offering "free unlimited" email...I think it's only a matter of time.

I was thinking about this as well, with Google significantly lowering their prices, it's only a matter of time.

I wouldn't want to buy the storage from Google though no matter how cheap it is, I'd much rather buy from a company that doesn't sell ads even if it costs quite a bit more.

 

[r0k]

Photostream isn't a good place to back up photos since they get deleted from Apple's servers after 30 days, if you do a restore then you're never getting them back.

I only launch iPhoto about every 90 days. When I do, it creates events for the Photostream for the months since I launched it. For instance, in January iPhoto created October2013, November2013, December2013 and January2013 photostream events for me.

I think that was changed. I have photos on mine from Christmas still and that was way over 30 days ago.

Agree.

It deletes from the server but not from the device.

To delete from device, I use Image Capture and a usb cable. This allows me to grab all the videos off my phone and wipe the 3+ GB of photos that were hogging my device. As for deleting photos from the iCloud server, perhaps this does happen, but those photos have already been pushed to my Mac and other iThings so I have never lost anything even if I wait months to get around to launching iPhoto.

I was thinking about this as well, with Google significantly lowering their prices, it's only a matter of time.

I wouldn't want to buy the storage from Google though no matter how cheap it is, I'd much rather buy from a company that doesn't sell ads even if it costs quite a bit more.

I pay extra for iCloud storage AND I use google storage. I guess I'm a bit of a digital pack rat. I would love to see Apple finally offer at least as much iCloud storage as the sum of the memory on the device(s) you are backing up. After all, we are paying an extra $100 per iThing for extra storage and I think it borders on corporate greed to make us pay annually just to back them up, especially when gmail gives you 15 GB of space free.

 

[Weaselboy]

I only launch iPhoto about every 90 days. When I do, it creates events for the Photostream for the months since I launched it. For instance, in January iPhoto created October2013, November2013, December2013 and January2013 photostream events for me.

I notice the same thing, but I don't think it is downloading those photos from Photostream only when you launch iPhoto. Just from a but of experimenting I did, it looks like they get downloaded to OS X in the background even if you never launch iPhoto. Then when you launch iPhoto it creates those "events" from the photos that are already on your Mac.

 

[r0k]

I notice the same thing, but I don't think it is downloading those photos from Photostream only when you launch iPhoto. Just from a but of experimenting I did, it looks like they get downloaded to OS X in the background even if you never launch iPhoto. Then when you launch iPhoto it creates those "events" from the photos that are already on your Mac.

Agreed. I think there is a folder lurking somewhere in ~/Library that contains photostream downloads. I found a way to get to that folder directly but I don't mind launching iPhoto from time to time because I also want those photos automatically added to faces and places.

It seems the main times I use faces is for parties and funerals. At a time when I'm stressed either by party planning or at a time of loss, it's nice to be able to tell an algorithm to go off and find pictures of somebody for me and it's even nicer when it has already found a few thousand for me to pick from because I've been adding photostream photos to iPhoto on a roughly quarterly basis.

 

[Siderz]

I think that was changed. I have photos on mine from Christmas still and that was way over 30 days ago.

It deletes from the server but not from the device.

To delete from device, I use Image Capture and a usb cable. This allows me to grab all the videos off my phone and wipe the 3+ GB of photos that were hogging my device. As for deleting photos from the iCloud server, perhaps this does happen, but those photos have already been pushed to my Mac and other iThings so I have never lost anything even if I wait months to get around to launching iPhoto.

No, I meant that after 30 days, the photos in Photo Stream automatically delete from the server but not the device.

So, photos upload to the server, then any devices that connect to Wi-Fi within 30 days will receive the photos, devices that don't make the 30 day window won't be able to download photos. Devices that have successfully downloaded the photos will keep them stored past the 30 day window, if you delete a photo from one device then it will delete from all (Even after the 30 day window).

PhotoStream on a Mac downloads in the background just like Calendars/Reminders do, so no worries in having to open iPhoto within those 30 days, just need to make sure you connect to the Internet within 30 days.

Another thing is that PhotoStream doesn't back up to iCloud like the camera roll does, so if you restore a device then PhotoStream will only have photos that are <30 days old. And, one last thing, photos uploaded to PhotoStream are compressed (And I think resized) so if you want pics in the highest quality then it's best to transfer them from the camera roll, rather than using PhotoStream.