What Happens to Your Data If You Stop Paying for Cloud Storage?

WIRED

3 days ago

Hit by subscription fatigue? Here's what happens to your files and photos if you cancel your paid storage plan. Photo-Illustration:If it's been a while since you added up how many digital subscriptions you're paying for, it's likely to be more than you think: streaming services, software packages, games, AI bots, health and fitness wearables ... the list goes on.
You can add cloud storage subscriptions to that list too. Apple, Google, and Microsoft offer very little in the way of free storage in the cloud, which means if you want the convenience of having your photos, videos, and other files safely backed up and accessible on every device, you're probably going to have to pay for it.
What if you don't want to have these subscriptions for life, though—what if you've found a better option for your backups and storage (and there are plenty of options out there)? You might be wondering what happens to the years and years of files you've amassed in the cloud if you cancel your storage subscription.
While we can't cover every single cloud storage service here, we've picked four of the main ones below. Here's what happens to your data if you stop paying, and what you need to do with your files before hitting the unsubscribe button. Apple iCloud
You can manage your iCloud subscription from any Apple device. David Nield
Pricing for Apple iCloud storage starts at $0.99 per month for 50 GB of space, and you get extras like Hide My Email included too. You can manage your subscription from your iPhone by going to Settings, tapping your name and then Subscriptions, and from System Settings on a Mac by selecting your name, then iCloud.
If you cancel your iCloud storage, you go back down to the free allocation of 5 GB. If you currently have more than that in the cloud, you won't be able to make new backups or sync any new files until you've freed up some space—so you'll need to delete files to add any new ones.
What Apple is less clear about is what will happen to your existing data. The official documentation implies, but doesn't specifically say, that your files will be kept in a read-only state, with no backups completing until you delete files or increase your storage plan. The iCloud terms and conditions state that if you've not backed up a device for 180 days, Apple 'reserves the right' to delete any existing backups (including photos and videos)—so it may delete your files, and it may not.
Given this timeline, it's unlikely that anything will happen to your files immediately after you cancel, though we'd recommend getting your iCloud files backed up somewhere else as soon as possible—bearing in mind that any local copies of this data you have won't be affected by canceling your iCloud storage plan. Google One
Google Takeout lets you download everything in your Google storage. David Nield
If you pay Google for cloud storage, your pricing options start at $1.99 per month, which gets you 100 GB of space in the cloud. As with Apple, there are extras attached, and you can manage your current plan via the Google One dashboard on the web.
Choose to unsubscribe from your Google One package, and you go back down to 15 GB of storage space, across Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, and Google's other apps. For all the time you're over that limit, those apps will essentially freeze—as in, you won't be able to send or receive emails in Gmail or create new files in Google Docs.
You won't be able to sync new files to Google Photos or Google Drive, either. Google says if you stay over the free storage limit without paying, 'all the content that counts toward your storage quota may be deleted'—so as with Apple, there's a 'may' in there.
Your files are safe from this fate for two years after canceling, but unless you want your Gmail and other Google apps to become pretty much unusable, you'll need to free up some space or back up your files somewhere else. Thankfully, you can download everything from your Google cloud storage quite simply, via Google Takeout. Microsoft OneDrive
OneDrive is tightly integrated into Windows. David Nield
As with Apple and Google, Microsoft OneDrive storage comes with bonus goodies included, not least Microsoft Office at the higher storage tiers. The most basic one, which gives you 100 GB of room, will set you back $1.99 a month.
You get 5 GB of OneDrive cloud storage space for free with a Microsoft account, and if you cancel your subscription, that's what you go back to. As per Microsoft, as long as you're over that limit and not paying, you won't be able to sync any new files. Existing files will remain, but in a read-only state. You also won't be able to send or receive emails in Outlook.com, or Teams messages with attachments.
Microsoft gives you six months to decide what to do with the files in your OneDrive account, after which it 'may' (there's that word again) decide to delete the files you have on Microsoft's servers. Once they're deleted, Microsoft warns, they're gone forever. If you need these files, you need to download them and move them somewhere else (the OneDrive clients for Windows and macOS can help here).
Unlike Google, Microsoft treats its cloud storage and email storage services separately. You get 15 GB of cloud space with Outlook for free, and 100 GB of space if you pay $1.99 a month (on top of the other 100 GB). You can't send or receive email if you are over your limit, so you'll need to clean up your inbox to start using it again. Dropbox
You can sync your Dropbox files to Windows or macOS using the desktop clients. David Nield
We can't cover every single cloud storage service in this article, but here's one more: Dropbox. Dropbox users get 2 GB of storage space in the cloud free of charge, and then the paid plans begin at $9.99 per month for 2 TB of space.
If you store more than 2 GB of files in your Dropbox, and then stop paying, nothing happens to those files: They will just stay as they are, in the cloud, and on your synced devices. However, you won't be able to add new files, and any changes you make locally to files won't then be synced to the cloud.
There's no expiration date on your files either—they'll just stay as they are permanently. Presumably Dropbox wants to encourage users to sign up for another paid plan somewhere down the line, at which point you can pick up where you left off.
You can use the Dropbox clients for Windows and macOS to sync files from the cloud to your computers, and from there to other locations and backup services. Once files are moved out of or deleted from your Dropbox folder on your computer, they'll be wiped from the cloud too.