How to use your free cloud storage with Amazon Drive

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UPDATE 8/1/2022 11:30 AM ET: Amazon is sunsetting Amazon Drive. The company plans to shut the service down on December 31, 2023. Until then, Amazon says you can still use Amazon Drive to access your files.

With the rise in popularity of cloud storage, there are several options available for you to take advantage of. For those of you with an Amazon account, you have access to 5 GB of cloud storage, called Amazon Drive, completely free of charge.

Amazon has a little-known feature called Amazon Drive that lets you store up to 5 GB of files completely free. You don’t even need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to take advantage of this feature.

And you can store virtually any file type on Amazon Drive. From photos and videos to documents or even more obscure file types, the possibilities are pretty endless. So let’s see how it works.

How to set up your account

When you first make your Amazon account, you are automatically awarded access to Amazon Drive’s free 5 GB of storage. All you need to do is head to the Amazon Drive website and log in, and you’re good to go to start uploading.

There is also an Amazon Drive mobile app for both Android and iO

S. That means that you can easily upload files from your mobile device and share them with your computer or vice versa.

Just like with the Amazon Drive website, just log into the app on your mobile device using your Amazon account information.

As long as you’re logged in, you can access all of your uploaded files from any device that has the Amazon Drive app installed.

Can you get more storage?

While it is nice that Amazon offers 5 GB of Amazon Drive storage for free, you may find that you need a little more. Fortunately, you can get more Amazon Drive storage, but it’s going to cost you.

Amazon offers three additional storage options that users can pay for on a monthly basis. 100 GB will cost you $1.99 per month while a full terabyte sells for $6.99 per month.

And if that’s not enough, you can with a 2 TB option that will cost you $11.99 per month. $12 a month isn’t very cheap, but 2 full terabytes of cloud storage is an impressive amount that will take a while for most users to fill up.

Additionally, Amazon offers tiers all the way up to 30 TB, but that will set you back $1,800 a year.

How to upload files to Amazon Drive on the web

So now that you’ve logged into the Amazon Drive website using your Amazon account information, you’re ready to start using the free storage that the platform offers. Here’s how to upload files to Amazon Drive:

1. Select Upload in the top left corner then choose to upload a single file or a full folder

2. Browse and select the file or folder you wish to upload

3. Choose which Amazon Drive folder you want the file to be in

That’s all there is to it. Now, just wait for the file to upload to Amazon Drive and you’re good to go. From there, you can download the file onto your device or just access it from Amazon Drive.

There’s even an option that will let you share files from Amazon Drive through email, links, or social media.

How to use Amazon Drive on mobile

If you want to use the Amazon Drive app to download or upload files to and from your mobile device, that’s also an option.

First, you need to download either the Android or iOS version of the app and sign in to your Amazon account. Next, follow the steps below:

1. Tap the three-dot menu in the top right

2. Select Upload

3. Here, you can take an image or video using your phone or choose from an existing file

4. Browse your device and choose the file you wish to upload

After you follow these steps, just wait for the file to upload and you’re good to go. As a note, uploading from the Amazon Drive main page on your mobile device won’t add the files to an existing folder.

If you want the file to upload to a specific folder, you will need to enter that folder first. Then you can follow the upload steps and the file will automatically be added to that folder.

Alternatively, you can select the three-dot menu next to any file and select the Move option. That will let you move your files around to different folders so they are organized however you’d like.

Is this different from Amazon Photos?

Amazon Drive is similar, but still different, from Amazon’s other cloud storage option. Amazon Photos also lets you save files in the cloud. But it is limited to photo and video file types, like JPEGs, PNGs, or MP4s.

However, Amazon Photos does carry one benefit that isn’t available with Amazon Drive. If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, then you have unlimited photo storage on Amazon Photos for no extra fee.

You are still limited to 5 GB of video storage, but you can store all your images in Amazon Photos for as long as your Prime membership is active. There is also an Amazon Photos app for Android and iOS for users who need cloud storage access on their phones.

Take advantage of free storage with Amazon Drive

Nowadays, just about everyone has an Amazon account. And you might as well take advantage of all that comes with the account, including Amazon Drive.

Even if you don’t really have the need for any extra cloud storage, Amazon Drive can be of some use. It’s a great way to easily transfer files from a computer to a mobile device, for example.

And if you do need a little extra cloud storage but don’t want to pay another service, like Google Drive, for an upgrade, there’s 5 GB waiting for every Amazon account holder right now through Amazon Drive.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.