Amazon drives away new custom… scratch that… Amazon Drive going away
Amazon Drive, which I’d completely forgotten I had from the days when it was called Amazon Cloud Drive, is going away as of December 31, 2023. That’s 14/15 months from now, so don’t freak out if you actually use it. The only thing to pay attention to right now is if for some reason you need the app based version of Drive you have until the end of October 2022 to get it from the App or Play Stores before it’s removed for good.
While this is not Amazon Photos, there does appear to be a time when Drive and Photos co-mingled data. So might want to peek at your drive and see if there’s anything there you can’t afford to lose.
Text of the Amazon Drive notice
Dear Amazon Drive Customer,
Beginning December 31, 2023, files stored on Amazon Drive will no longer be available to customers. We have outlined key information to reference as you take action to manage your files. For customers only concerned about managing photo and video files, please use Amazon Photos moving forward. Do not delete your photo and video files from your Amazon Drive account if you would like to access them through Amazon Photos.
Photo and video file storage: As an Amazon customer, your Amazon Drive photo and video files are available to you through Amazon Photos. To access your photos and videos, please sign in to the Amazon Photos website or download the Amazon Photos app for iOS or Android. Your photo and video files will continue to be available on Amazon Photos after December 31, 2023.
Photo and video files in Trash: While Amazon Drive and Amazon Photos are separate services, they share the same cloud storage location and access the same photo and video files, so any photos and videos that were uploaded to Amazon Photos are also accessed in Amazon Drive. Photo or video files that are moved to the Trash on Amazon Drive are also moved to the Trash on Amazon Photos. Files in your Trash folder will be permanently deleted from both Amazon Drive and Amazon Photos after 30 days and will no longer be available through Amazon Photos. Instructions to restore files from your Trash folder can be found here.
Downloading and saving files: For the best experience, we recommend using the Amazon Drive website to review and download your non-photo and non-video files from Amazon Drive by December 31, 2023. If you are having trouble downloading your files on the web app due to size limitations, we recommend using the Amazon Photos Desktop app to download and save your files. More instructions for using the Amazon Photos desktop app can be found on our FAQ page.
Key dates: As part of retiring Amazon Drive, there are two key changes that will occur before December 31, 2023.
App store removal: On October 31, 2022, the Amazon Drive app will be removed from the iOS and Android app stores. Customers who already have the iOS and Android app installed will not see a change in service.
Upload feature disabled: After January 31, 2023, Amazon will no longer support uploading files on the Amazon Drive website. You will still be able to view and download your files until December 31, 2023.
Step-by-step instructions for using Amazon Photos, deleting and downloading your files, managing your paid subscription, and resources for additional help can be found on our FAQ page.
Thank you for being an Amazon customer.
The Amazon Drive teamI’d completely forgotten this existed, and that I’d exceeded capacity a long long time ago… looks like in 2017. Ah well…
