Why you should use more than one cloud storage service (and how to choose them)

In recent weeks, you must have come out Unfortunate story Onedrive users found that they were out of the price of 30 years after Microsoft and the value of data – without any clarification or warning – provided access to their cloud storage locker and everything inside it.

I am not going here in the details of that particular case, but it is a reminder that you really need more than one backup to ensure that your digital safety trap is quite large. From hacks to floods, the number of ways to destroy your files are many and diverse, and we have previously written about the dangers of relying only one backup for those files that are most important for you.

As you can expect from someone who has signed three music streaming services, I also pay for more than one cloud storage service. It is believed that this is an additional cost, but if you think how important your data is, you can also find it worth investing – the matter to do it and some suggestions to work it.

Choose your cloud storage services

Not all cloud storage services are made equal, and you will need to plan a little to do which people have to combine. For example, Apple’s iCloud drive service works perfectly on apple devices, but support Windows is more patch for computer and is absent for your Android phones and tablets.

Dropbox One of the better options for additional backup is, as it is not associated with any big three as far as mobile and desktop platforms go: Apple, Microsoft and Google. It works efficiently and quietly in the background in Android, iOS, Windows and Macos, and integrates all of them neatly. Proton drive There is another good option for Big Three.

Dropbox settings on Windows.
Credit: Lifehacker

While creating your choice, I would advise to look at the web interface along with looking at the desktop and mobile client: If you lose access to your main equipment, you may have to rely on the web app to go on your important data, so it is important to be able to open, share and move the files.

See for the extra received by you: Pay $ 20 per month for Google AI Pro (first Google One AI Premium), and not only do you get 2TB cloud storage to play, you also get access to the best Gemini AI model. with Microsoft OnedriveMeanwhile, you can pay $ 10 per month for both 1TB storage and all desktop office apps.

Keep working together

Ideally you want a laptop or desktop to be your main hub for many backups, as it is a little easier to manage many apps and services on the phone or tablet. Try and consolidate everything in a folder and its subfolders, so you always know what is being backup and what is not.

Check inside the settings for your chosen apps, and you should find which folder backups can be configured. For apple iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft Onedrive, customers can sync all files from your user account folder along with your desktop, for example – this is just a question of taking the right folder from a list.

Configuring folder backup at Onedrive on Windows.
Credit: Lifehacker

Another feature in most cloud storage services is common that is the option to live in local copies of files as well as in clouds: You will usually be pushed to use file placeholders on your laptop or desktop, but if you have a room, then all causes are the best of all causes (if you have the best of all reasons (if you have a room, if you have a room, if you have a room. goes down).

With two-way syncing configured on your selected cloud storage services, any change made locally will be syncing into the cloud, and vice versa. There is always a risk of removing files by mistake – which will remove copies at every place – but all major cloud storage apps will warns you about large -scale deletion, and will keep the files removed for several weeks, if you need to bring them back.

Try and keep the cost low

I appreciate that we are living in expensive times, and you are probably already paying for enough digital subscription because it is – one more spending at the top can only seem to be extremely in the event of Google’s cloud storage server fail. But these problems occur.

One way to reduce and keep costs is to share one or more cloud storage services with others. Many large providers offer family plans, so you can share the financial burden with a loved one – or perhaps they can keep the second backup for you, and you can keep the second backup for them, to avoid paying twice. Look out for bundle services too, like Apple one,

Google Drive Client for Windows.
Credit: Lifehacker

You can also use free storage allocation available. For example, these are very palettes for Google Drive, Google Photos and Gmail – but if you are using them as an emergency instead of primary backup, there may be enough space to store your most important files that you cannot fully.

If you are unable to sign up for another cloud storage provider, consider creating a secondary backup on the outer hard drive, and regularly refreshing files on it: if something happens in your cloud storage, you will still be able to access it. Just make sure that it is not in the physical place similar to your laptop or desktop, as fire, flood, or theft can quickly erase both copies of your files at once.