Phone running out of storage? Cloud is the best solution

Cloud subscriptions are available at various price points

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Your phone is running out of storage.’

Many of you might have had to rush to the photo gallery to delete unwanted photos and videos after seeing this prompt on the screen. No amount of storage is good enough these days, as the size of the photos and videos your phone takes is much bigger than it was a few years ago (owing to higher resolution cameras and bigger sensors) and there is the constant downloading of media files on chat platforms.

One easy way out is using a memory card. If you already have one installed, get one with a bigger storage. But all phones do not offer this feature (iPhones, for instance). And memory cards tend to develop reliability issues when you use them for a long time. Another option is backing up the heavy files on another device (preferably a computer) and deleting them from the phone. This is a hassle, though, as you have to do it every now and then.

The best option would be getting a cloud subscription. Both iPhones and Android phones come with basic cloud support. When you sign up for iCloud, you get 5GB of free storage. You can upgrade to iCloud+ that offers not just more storage but some additional features as well. The 50GB plan costs Rs75 a month, the 200GB plan Rs219 and the 2TB plan Rs749.

On Android phones, you get 15GB space in Google Drive for free. Remember, your Gmail and Google Photos use this space. You can upgrade to the basic paid plan of 100GB for Rs130 a month. The 200GB plan costs Rs210 a month and the 2TB plan costs Rs650 a month. There are plans up to 30TB.

There are other cloud services like Microsoft OneDrive, Box and Dropbox available at various points. But the integration to the operating system is not as smooth as iCloud+ (on the iPhone) and Google Drive (on Android phones).

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