iCloud is great but 5GB of free storage just isn't enough. Come on Apple, sort it out!
Lately I've written a lot about Apple's new Photos app for Mac. The app is amazing for plenty of reasons: it finally replaces Apple's decade-old iPhoto, it's got a slick new interface, and it’s snappy as hell. But the big thing about Photos for Mac is it uses a new technology called iCloud Photo Library that fulfills the promise that was first banded about circa 2012 that eventually one day in the magnificent future all our files would live in the cloud. From this magical cloud any device we owned could access any file at any time.
Apple has grown its mobile footprint exponentially during the past 19 months with enormous iPhone and iPad sales. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus sold in excess of 15 million during their opening week, an utterly unfathomable amount of sales compared to every other player in the space.
Oddly, though, Apple is still pushing its 16GB model and this is rather perplexing because the handset, quite simply, does not have enough storage for 80% of consumers. If you like taking pictures, recording video and storing media offline on your phone 16GB just don’t cut it -- you’ll get through it in no time.
This is where iCloud comes into play. But iCloud, like the 16GB iPhone model, is grossly inadequate. You get 5GB for free and this, if we’re honest, only just about covers the basics. In order to get more, you’ll have to pay just as you do with iPhone models.
iCloud Photo Library in the new Photos app for Mac (as well as with the Photos app on iOS) largely exceeds that promise. Thanks to it and its backbone, Apple's iCloud storage all my devices now can access all my photos, video, and their edits at any time...that is, if I have enough space. Unfortunately, with iCloud, Apple never gives you enough space. And therein lies the rub. Apple has finally created a cloud service that truly lives up to the hype, but the company still is skimpy as hell with the free storage allocation it gives you, which means most people will never ever benefit from all the promises of the cloud.
Your iCloud Storage Allowances
The reason is because Apple still only gives iCloud users 5GB of free storage space. At first 5GB might sound like a lot, but you realize how pathetically inept that amount of storage is as soon as you see which of Apple's cloud services count against that space. Let's have a look at those:
- iCloud Backup – this includes the backups of all your iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches that are saved to the cloud.
- iCloud Drive – this includes all the documents (such as iWork documents) and data from third-party apps on OS X and iOS that store documents and data in the cloud so they can be accessed from any device.
- iCloud mail – this includes all you emails and their attachments from your @icloud.com email account.
- iCloud Photo Library – this is the sum total of every video and photo on all your Macs and iOS devices.
At first that doesn't look like much, right? After all, that's basically only four things: iCloud Backups, iCloud Drive documents and data, your iCloud emails, and iCloud Photo Library. And if you're new to computers or the Internet and have no data history the free 5GB Apple gives you will be more than enough.
Sadly, if you're not a total luddite and, like me, have over a decade's worth of email and photos, not to mention documents and multiple iOS devices that are backed up to iCloud, the 5GB of iCloud storage Apple gives you is a complete joke. Worse, it's a non-starter. It completely locks you out of iCloud's services.
The Actual iCloud Storage An Average User Needs
This is easy to see when you look at the amount of data all the things iCloud can store actually takes up. For example, my iCloud Backup of my iPhone takes up 4.2GB alone. My iPad backup takes up another 3.3GB. If you're counting along, that's already over the 5GB limit, which means if I don't pony up more cash immediately I can't even send a single iCloud email.
But let's not stop with backups, my iCloud Drive documents and data takes up an additional 2.1GB (and I don't use iCloud Drive for much). Then 14 years of iCloud emails (I've had the same email address through Apple since 2002 when iCloud started as iTools, then became .Mac, then became MobileMe, then became iCloud) and their attachments are another 3.4GB. And then we get to iCloud Photo Library, which quite frankly is AMAZING. But I have over 15 years of photos and videos in my Photos library on my Mac. Its total storage size? 175 GBs.
So adding all that up (4.2GB+3.3GB+2.1GB+3.4GB+175 GB) equals 188GB of iCloud storage needed–and that's if I don't want to send another email or upload a single new photo. 188GB of storage needed and Apple gives you 5.
And the thing is, I'm not the exception, I'm the rule. This is almost 2016. We've been taking digital photos for over a decade and sending emails for almost two. Most other people have 100GB Photos libraries and gigabytes full of iCloud emails, not to mention multiple iOS device backups taking up 5GB or more.
Apple Does Allow You To Buy More Storage
Now I'm not suggesting that Apple gives everyone free, unlimited storage. They may be the largest tech company on the planet, but it’s not reasonable to believe they owe people unlimited iCloud space. And the company does allow you to buy more storage if you need it. In the UK, an additional 50 GB of storage will cost you £0.79 a month. 200 GB will cost you £2.49 a month. And 1TB will cost you £6.99 a month.
Yet these pricing plans look expensive compared to many other cloud storage providers. For example, Yahoo's Flickr gives you 1TB of FREE storage a year. Microsoft gives users of Office 365 Personal of 1TB space for free. Dropbox and Google Drive are a little more inline with Apple and give you 1TB of storage for $10USD (about £6) a month.
My thing with Apple's paltry 5GB is that it locks many people out of iCloud services from the get-go. As I said, if you have just two iOS devices, chances are you've used up all your iCloud storage. And let's face it, most people don't pay for subscription storage plans, so that means Apple is locking people out of iCloud all on their own, which is a shame, because iCloud has become quite useful (after a long, rocky start).
But though I'm not advocating Apple gives unlimited space, I do think the company could make a few changes....
How To Fix iCloud Storage
- The best option would be to bump everyone up to 50GB of iCloud storage for free. This would allow almost everyone to keep 2-3 iOS device backups in iCloud and also provide plenty of room for emails and documents.
- I look at iCloud Photo Drive as an additional feature well worth paying for. So if you do want to use it and you have a Photos library exceeding 50GBs you should pay for it. I think Apple should just charge a flat fee for unlimited iCloud Photos storage. Perhaps £50/year. That seems like the sweet spot for many people I talk to.
- A third option if Apple wants to not offer anymore than a free 5GB is to not count iOS device backups against your iCloud storage allotment. This is an appealing option for many people I talk to.
- And perhaps a fourth option is that Apple gives you 5GB of storage space for every Mac and iOS device you currently own. That means if you have an iPhone and an iPad you get 10GB of iCloud storage. This would allow you to use some of that storage for your device backups without taking up all of it.
But what about you? Do you have any suggestions how Apple could make its iCloud storage plans better? Let us know in the comments!
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