Is there a good iCloud alternative?

[tobywatches]

I run a Mac and an iPhone.

Just had a message saying I’m at my 200GB iCloud limit so can’t back up my phone any more.

Before I pay for the 2TB option (£9 a month!) I thought I’d see if anyone knows of a decent alternative.

I don’t backup much from the computer - that goes on an external hard drive via Time Machine although a few docs etc. go into Files and therefore take up some of the iCloud space.

Most of the data on iCloud is photos and WhatsApp messages etc., as well as general phone backups which I’m loath to delete. Obviously, especially with pics, that will only increase in data size.

The functionality of iCloud is what has kept me there but £9 a month for an amount of space I can never imagine needing feels a lot (why isn’t there a 500GB/1TB option?

So does anyone know of anything that works like iCloud (auto backups of phone/computer/photos and messages) or is this just the punishment for being tied in to Apple?


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[wileeeeeey]

Best way I’ve found is to share it with family. I have 5 family on mine as a result.

The recent price rise really was a bit rough.

Waiting for an EU law which forces apple to let you choose your backup provider the same way businesses can.

This is just for phones and tablets. I also have google cloud separately for laptops and other stuff, prefer it over iCloud Drive.

[Halitosis]

We use Microsoft OneDrive which comes with our 365 family subscription. £80/year gets us 5 separate accounts each with (I believe) 1tb of OneDrive and all the Office apps - Excel, Word, PowerPoint etc. No idea if this is competitive but it is convenient and easy to use with our various MS and Apple/Mac devices

[craig1912]

Think I’ve tried most and having a Mac, iPhone and iPad I just find iCloud easiest to use.

[Neil.Ldn]

Be careful transferring photos out of iCloud and onto a different service. Apple (typically) uses it's own method for tagging meta-data which third-party cloud storage apps won't recognise - causing a nightmare trying to reorganise large libraries of snaps. Don't ask me how I know! You can automate fixing the problem retrospectively but it's a proper ball-ache.

I use One-Drive for general storage, and iCloud for auto back-ups and photo's only. One-Drive does have a camera upload feature much like iCloud, only not as well integrated.

[sjedwardz]

We have to 200gb family plan.

One thing worth checking is if there are any backups on there from devices you no longer have like iPhones or iPads.

We hit the limit a month or so ago and I found we had backups from iPhone 6’s etc that were sold years ago and upgraded several times.

You might already have done this but worth it.

I also find that video takes up a lot so I’ve moved them to a network my cloud device that we have as well as OneDrive as we have office 365 for the family.

Shame that there isn’t anything between the 200 and 1gb !!