What cloud storage (or on premise storage) do you use and why?

[rogermunibond]

iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox.  Any others?  On premise hard drive that connects to your devices.  I am shopping around for a solution after hitting the limit on free storage from several of the above.  Is it worth the convenience and ease of paying $12/year to Apple or $24/year to Google?

 

What are folks using for storing that mass of photos, videos, documents that modern life seems to generate?

Edited June 28, 2023 by rogermunibond

[CorpRaider]

I pay for google one.  Have often thought about getting my own wifi HD, but haven't yet.  It seems a great business, my wife and I share photos automatically on google photos so we probably end up paying for double storage for 90% of the photos and videos we take...hah.  I do like clicking a couple of times and picking up hard copies and that they automatically populate the screen savers on my screens in my home.  

Edited June 28, 2023 by CorpRaider

[DooDiligence]

I pay Apple $2.99 a month for 200gb and everything is seamless. I backup everything that's on my desktop which includes my entire document folder but I exclude my old iTunes library of ripped CD's (120+ gb). Everything is easily accessible from my iPhone, iPad and MacBook. Working cross platforms is a breeze.

 

I'm going to have to upgrade to the next storage level soon because I've started working with Final Cut Pro and the files are starting to max out my current iCloud storage. My MacBook has 2tb onboard so no worries there (yet).

 

At first, I resisted paying more for iCloud storage but it became a necessity and I don't regret it.

[rkbabang]

I pay Apple for Apple One which comes with enough cloud storage to backup our iPhones.  I have a QNAP NAS (TVS-1271U-RP-i3-8G) for all of our computers. 1 Mac, 1 Windows, and 1 Linux machine and also stores all of our pictures and home videos on a Plex server so they can be viewed on any TV in the house.

 

[dwy000]

1 hour ago, rogermunibond said:

iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox.  Any others?  On premise hard drive that connects to your devices.  I am shopping around for a solution after hitting the limit on free storage from several of the above.  Is it worth the convenience and ease of paying $12/year to Apple or $24/year to Google for the convenience and ease?

 

What are folks using for storing that mass of photos, videos, documents that modern life seems to generate?

I primarily use OneDrive because you get up to 2Tb free storage if you subscribe to MS Office. 

 

It works great, seamless across all devices (even Apple ones).  I'm not sure how well iCloud works on non-apple devices but I assume pretty seamlessly too. 

[Castanza]

29 minutes ago, rkbabang said:

I pay Apple for Apple One which comes with enough cloud storage to backup our iPhones.  I have a QNAP NAS (TVS-1271U-RP-i3-8G) for all of our computers. 1 Mac, 1 Windows, and 1 Linux machine and also stores all of our pictures and home videos on a Plex server so they can be viewed on any TV in the house.

 

 

I use a very similar setup but I use a Synology NAS. Works great with my Ubiquity equipment. 

[tede02]

I have some stuff in a free version of dropbox. In the last year I finally broke down and purchased 100GB of storage via Google One mainly for pictures and video. I'm a business owner and use Onedrive for that. It's kind of amazing how managing data can turn into a burden as it gets spread out across various cloud platforms and or devices. Over the last 5-10 years I recall reading many articles of how big cloud storage is going to be, etc. and I never fully grasped the magnitude but I definitely see it now. Probably a decent runway still. 

[rkbabang]

2 hours ago, Castanza said:

 

I use a very similar setup but I use a Synology NAS. Works great with my Ubiquity equipment. 

I also have ubiquity equipment. Router, cloud key controller, switches, and 2 access points.  I also ran thousands of feet of CAT 6 cables all over my house when I moved in 8 years ago.  I’ve got a box of 4 Ethernet connections in each living room and my home office, plus 1 to each access point on the 2 ends of my house.  I pretty much do this first thing whenever I buy a home, as well as redo the kitchen and all the baths.

[Castanza]

8 minutes ago, rkbabang said:

I also have ubiquity equipment. Router, cloud key controller, switches, and 2 access points.  I also ran thousands of feet of CAT 6 cables all over my house when I moved in 8 years ago.  I’ve got a box of 4 Ethernet connections in each living room and my home office, plus 1 to each access point on the 2 ends of my house.  I pretty much do this first thing whenever I buy a home, as well as redo the kitchen and all the baths.

lol Again pretty much same thing I did. Ran ethernet to both floors and have 4 access points (2 on each floor). Don't have a lot of hardwire ports though. A little more plaster than I wanted to get into at the time. But I get pretty much full bar wifi on my property and at my neighbors houses. No wire no cables no fuss. One rack in the basement with the equipment. 

[competitive-advantage]

 I use iCloud across all my family's devices and it works wonderfully. Media is also shared with family members through shared albums and I'm grateful for all these memories. Disclaimer: I'm an owner of Apple Inc. 

[bizaro86]

I have a Google One account (paid). They got me with the Photos app - it's so much better than storing them on a regular drive somewhere (search by person, location, etc). 

[ValueArb]

7 hours ago, dwy000 said:

I primarily use OneDrive because you get up to 2Tb free storage if you subscribe to MS Office. 

 

It works great, seamless across all devices (even Apple ones).  I'm not sure how well iCloud works on non-apple devices but I assume pretty seamlessly too. 

 

Yep, I started using OneDrive when I switched back to Excel, and it makes it super easy to organize and store all my research, basically a single spreadsheet per company, and never worry about backups. I use iCloud too for personal stuff.

[Morgan]

I use OpenMediaVault 5 (Debian based) with Tailscale on a server to manage all my data. I can access it from any device with internet. 

 

I had everything spread out for years and it was fairly disorganized. A few years ago I decided I needed a permanent solution all in one place. I bought an old server for $180 and two hard drives. At the time I did it, apple/google/onedrive, etc were too expensive for the terabyte (and growing) of data I had. Plus google was editing my photos badly automatically. I just didn't have enough control or trust that the big guys would keep my data unmodified over the next ten years. Apple has edited peoples music too. OneDrive didn't have Camera upload at the time either. My server has everything digital I've accumulated for the last 20 years. It needs to be safe. 

 

This was definitely harder than upgrading storage in a few clicks on one of the big guys, but it was worth it. 

[Luke]

I use the free Microsoft Drive where i store few important documents like contracts etc. Rest is saved on multiple hard drives and physically. I refuse to pay for Cloud Storage when i can also set up my own storage server for cheaper.  

[Cor]

I like Sync.com as it’s privacy focused, or at least used to be. 2TB at $8/mo. Very convenient for accessing most file formats on the go