Amazon axes its unlimited Amazon Drive storage plan, puts it on a 1TB diet

By Mark Coppock June 8, 2017

amazon drive drops unlimited storage plan seagate duet for — Image used with permission by copyright holder

For a while, some cloud storage services were offering unlimited storage options. This was a real boon to users, who could store their photos, videos, and important documents offline and in a relatively secure and reliable place for relatively small amounts of money.

The plans got a little too expensive for the service providers, apparently, and so they started reducing their plans to more manageable sizes. Microsoft dropped its own OneDrive unlimited plan to 1TB, and now Amazon has followed suit with its own Amazon Drive.

Previously, Amazon Drive’s top tier offered unlimited storage for $60 a year. Now, that same price point will offer a still-solid 1TB. Amazon will also offer the ability to purchase additional storage at $60 per TB up to a total of 30TB of storage. The new limit goes into effect on Thursday but current unlimited tier customers will retain their unlimited storage through its existing expiration date.

Going forward, Amazon Drive’s plans will start out at $12 per year for 100GB of storage with the next option being the 1TB plan. New customers who sign up for Amazon Drive will get 5GB of storage for free, and Amazon Prime customers will retain unlimited photo storage along with the 5GB of non-photo storage.

If you currently have an unlimited plan and are storing more than 1TB of data, then your service will be considered in over-quote status when your current plan expires. At that point, you will either need to purchase additional storage in sufficient terabyte increments to cover your usage, or you will no longer be able to upload new files. Your existing files will be accessible for viewing, downloading, and deleting. Notably, this will only be the case during the 180-day grace period — after that, Amazon will start deleting files beginning with the most recent uploads until you are below 1TB.

If you are an Amazon Drive customer, then you can always check your storage status at Amazon’s Manage Storage page. That is probably a good thing to do if you’re a current unlimited customer because the sooner you start planning on how to manage your terabytes of files, the better. If you’re looking for an alternative to Amazon Drive, then check out our cloud storage roundup.

Editors' Recommendations

It’s no wonder Dropbox is killing off its unlimited storage plan

Topics

Computing Writer

Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…

Computing

Power up your tech game this summer with Dell’s top deals: Upgrade for a bargain

Dell Techfest and best tech on sale featured.

One of the best times to upgrade your tech stack, be it your desktop, a new laptop, or some high-resolution monitors, is when great deals are to be had. Well, I'm here to share that thanks to Dell's top deals, you can power up your tech game and have most of the summer to make it happen. Maybe you're happy with your current system or setup. That's excellent, but you're likely considering upgrading somewhere, and that's precisely what these deals are all about. Dell has a smorgasbord of deals on laptops, desktops, gaming desktops, monitors, accessories, and so much more. We'll call out a few of our favorite deals below, but for now, know that you should be shopping this sale if you're interested in anything tech-related.

What summer tech should you buy in Dell's top deals?

Computing

I love the MacBook Pro, but this Windows laptop came surprisingly close

Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

There are some great machines in the 15-inch laptop category, which has recently been stretched to include the more common 16-inch laptop. The best among them is the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which offers fast performance for tasks like video editing and the longest battery life.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is aimed not only at other 16-inch Windows laptops but also at the MacBook Pro 16. It offers many of the same benefits but at a lower price. Can it take a place at the top?
Specs and configurations

Computing

How to set an ‘Out of Office’ message in Microsoft Teams

Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

Many people use Microsoft Teams regularly to communicate with colleagues both inside of the office and remotely. It is considered one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can stay in contact with the people on your team, but what if you need to let people know you’re not readily available? Microsoft Teams has a method for you to set up an "Out of Office" status for your profile to let staff members know when you’ll be gone for the afternoon, for several days on vacation, or for an extended period.
Where do I go to set up my ‘Out of Office’ status for Teams?
It is important to note that your Microsoft Teams and Outlook calendars are synced. This includes your out-of-office status and automatic replies. So, whatever you set up in Microsoft Teams will reflect in Outlook. Similarly, you can set up your out-of-office status in Outlook, and it will be reflected in Teams; however, the former has a more straightforward instruction.

First, you can click on your profile icon in Teams and go directly to Schedule an out of office, as a shortcut. This will take you to the settings area where you can proceed. You can also click the three-dot icon next to your profile icon, then go to Settings > General, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you'll find out-of-office settings and click Schedule.