The cloud storage wars are about to lose a major player in 2023.
Well, they couldn’t have made that much of a splash given that they are bowing out, but few would deny that Amazon typically wields an outsized presence wherever they land.
Called Amazon Drive, the storage option was once touted as a competitively priced alternative to the Drop Boxes and Google Drives of the world. Alas, it was not to be.
Scheduled to close in 2023, users will have any and all files that aren’t photographs deleted. Why are photographs being spared? Apparently, Amazon’s photo storage service and the soon-to-be-gone Amazon Drive use the same location in cyberspace thus deleting photos on one side effectively deletes them on the other as well. In short, if you have photos on Amazon Drive, they’ll be safe and accessible via the Photos service.
From the FAQs on Amazon:
“Because Amazon Drive and Amazon Photos share the same cloud storage location, your photo and video files in Amazon Drive access the same photo and video files in Amazon Photos. To access your photos and videos in Amazon Photos, please sign in to the Amazon Photos website or download the Amazon Photos app for iOS or Android. Any photo or video deleted on Amazon Drive will no longer be available through Amazon Photos and will be permanently removed from Amazon after 30 days.”
Of course, this isn’t really shocking news. Amazon announced it back in July and The Verge reported on it. That said, the due date for having everything organized and cleared off of Amazon Drive before it is deleted is fast approaching.
As for why Amazon is calling it quits, the initial reports suggested that the company wanted to hone in on media instead of general storage.
Do you use Amazon Drive? If so, where do you plan on taking your business once the service shutters?
Any last thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
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