20 GB of free SkyDrive storage gifted to Windows Phone users

Scorpus

Posts: 2,159   +239
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If you happen to be a proud owner of a Windows Phone, Microsoft has decided to make this holiday season a little better by offering extra SkyDrive storage for free. As described in an email sent to all Windows Phone users, you'll be able to claim 20 GB of free SkyDrive storage that's active for a year, so long as you click the link before the end of January.

The 20 GB of cloud storage is in addition to the free 7 GB (or 25 GB for early adopters) already offered by the service. If you happen to have an Office 365 subscription, you'll likely find yourself with over 50 GB of storage available in Microsoft's cloud; even more if you claimed the free 200 GB (for two years) that comes with any Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 purchase.

So what are you going to do with all this free space? One of the best uses is to enable automatic full-resolution backups of your Windows Phone camera photos over Wi-Fi. Smartphone photos, especially those taken by the 41-megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020, can occupy quite a bit of space, which is where the extra 20 GB can come in handy.

Head on over to your email inbox to claim the extra 20 GB. At this stage it looks like the offer is only there for Windows Phone 8 users - unfortunate for the few Windows Phone 7 users still out there - but it should nevertheless be available for the majority of Windows Phone users.

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Still waiting for this offer to show up in my mail box. Anyway I already have 25GB Skydive with roughly 50% usage.
 
So what happens after a year to your stuff after a year after you've used 19Gb of your "free" storage? Do they just delete your files & photo's or pass them on to the NSA. I see it as another shameful way to try extort more money from the consumer.
As a Windows phone user myself I feel M$ can take this "generous" offer and shove it where the sun don't shine. I'll store my photo's and files myself thanks.
I'm switching back to an Android phone early in the new year. I've had enough of WP.
 
Microsoft does like deleting the oldest of files, when they need to cleanup. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case at the end of a free one year 20GB extra term. But then it is not as if MS is hiding this from the users. You know what the term is and what the limits will be. Don't be caught over the limit at the end of the term, and you won't have any thing to worry about.
 
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Would you believe I bought a one terabyte HDD the other day for $54.95.(w/ free shipping, no less). And I don't have any sort of mobile phone.

Which tacitly leaves me living in the dark ages , but with 50 times the storage capability, and a few hundred bucks in my pocket, since I didn't spend it on a phone.
 
Just another way for MS to make more money. Give away something for a year, you put stuff on there and in a year they say pay 9.95 a year or loose all your stuff. You say to yourself 9.95 is not to bad and besides being to lazy to move your stuff you just send MS more money.
 
Just another way for MS to make more money. Give away something for a year, you put stuff on there and in a year they say pay 9.95 a year or loose all your stuff. You say to yourself 9.95 is not to bad and besides being to lazy to move your stuff you just send MS more money.
Yeah, just think. 20 people would pay for 4TB. 4TB would cover 200 people. Thats 180 people covering the cost of service, damn what a ratio. If only the cost of raid redundancy, maintenance, and speedy bandwidth wasn't so high. If you don't want to pay, don't. Meantime why complain, when others see a positive value in such a deal.
 
We few windows 7 phone user's .got an email,I did anyway. but I store on an external HD . and pc that my phone is synced with, thanks. anyway..
 
So what happens after a year to your stuff after a year after you've used 19Gb of your "free" storage? Do they just delete your files & photo's or pass them on to the NSA. I see it as another shameful way to try extort more money from the consumer.
As a Windows phone user myself I feel M$ can take this "generous" offer and shove it where the sun don't shine. I'll store my photo's and files myself thanks.
I'm switching back to an Android phone early in the new year. I've had enough of WP.

It is a similar offer I got with S3 I had, and S4 I have now from dropbox/samsung I.e. 50GB for 2 years. Only difference is MS isn't selling you a phone with it. So would you tell dropbox/samsung to shove that sun down there *** as well?
 
So what happens after a year to your stuff after a year after you've used 19Gb of your "free" storage? Do they just delete your files & photo's or pass them on to the NSA. I see it as another shameful way to try extort more money from the consumer.
As a Windows phone user myself I feel M$ can take this "generous" offer and shove it where the sun don't shine. I'll store my photo's and files myself thanks.
I'm switching back to an Android phone early in the new year. I've had enough of WP.
And G$$gle doesn't do this? I've seen by far more pathetic attempts at money grabbing from their camp than I've ever seen by Microsoft, although I'll concede that there have been some, what with G$'s and their adverts constant efforts of trying to sell me crap at every turn.

If I'm not mistaken, you once mentioned you were from South Africa, well same here, and what's more I am also using a windows phone, have been for more than a year and can honestly not find fault with it, even convinced a few people to get one and switch from android as well and they love it, yet my friend who swears by his S3 has constantly got problems, furthermore people I know who have S4's also have many issues, yet my 'LOWLY' Lumia 920 marches on, unfazed, getting better with each update Nokia and Microsoft dish out, its almost as if I get a new phone everytime a new update comes out, not quite but almost. So I cant fathom what reasons you have for wanting to switch, but go ahead, don't be different, be one of the many, and I do mean MANY, people I see with exactly the same phone. At least in the days of Nokia being on top, everyone had a different version from your typical bullet proof 3310's right up to your 6310i's or a bit later the N8, nowadays everyone has a Samsung, and 9 times out of 10, a galaxy S3 or S4. So again, abandon ship if you want for what I am going to assume is probably something extremely minor and insignificant, it usually is, and jump over to the already crowded bandwagon, I'd even stick with windows phone purely to be different. So if you're set on jumping ship, please for the love of ***, please at least get something other than a Samsung Galaxy, and try something else like an HTC or a Sony because if I see one more person with a Samsung I might just puke my guts out.

It is a similar offer I got with S3 I had, and S4 I have now from dropbox/samsung I.e. 50GB for 2 years. Only difference is MS isn't selling you a phone with it. So would you tell dropbox/samsung to shove that sun down there *** as well?
Exactly!!
 
It is a similar offer I got with S3 I had, and S4 I have now from dropbox/samsung I.e. 50GB for 2 years. Only difference is MS isn't selling you a phone with it. So would you tell dropbox/samsung to shove that sun down there *** as well?
I wouldn't hesitate for one second. Would you GIVE someone a gift then ask them to pay for it? If MS stated they'd LOAN you the extra storage then expect you to pay for it or give it up after a year it would've made a difference. I've found out there's a subtle difference between giving and selling
 
And G$$gle doesn't do this? I've seen by far more pathetic attempts at money grabbing from their camp than I've ever seen by Microsoft, although I'll concede that there have been some, what with G$'s and their adverts constant efforts of trying to sell me crap at every turn.

If I'm not mistaken, you once mentioned you were from South Africa, well same here, and what's more I am also using a windows phone, have been for more than a year and can honestly not find fault with it, even convinced a few people to get one and switch from android as well and they love it, yet my friend who swears by his S3 has constantly got problems, furthermore people I know who have S4's also have many issues, yet my 'LOWLY' Lumia 920 marches on, unfazed, getting better with each update Nokia and Microsoft dish out, its almost as if I get a new phone everytime a new update comes out, not quite but almost. So I cant fathom what reasons you have for wanting to switch, but go ahead, don't be different, be one of the many, and I do mean MANY, people I see with exactly the same phone. At least in the days of Nokia being on top, everyone had a different version from your typical bullet proof 3310's right up to your 6310i's or a bit later the N8, nowadays everyone has a Samsung, and 9 times out of 10, a galaxy S3 or S4. So again, abandon ship if you want for what I am going to assume is probably something extremely minor and insignificant, it usually is, and jump over to the already crowded bandwagon, I'd even stick with windows phone purely to be different. So if you're set on jumping ship, please for the love of ***, please at least get something other than a Samsung Galaxy, and try something else like an HTC or a Sony because if I see one more person with a Samsung I might just puke my guts out.


Exactly!!
I apologise for knocking WP (no, that's not the Western Province which incidentally I love as well as their rugby team) Generally I find Nokia with Win 8 OK but little more than that. I do personally prefer Samsung Android devices but that's beside the point I want to make here which is when you GIVE somebody something, that's exactly what you do. MS states they'd GIVE you free extra storage for a year when they really mean LOAN you extra storage at no extra cost for a year. Maybe it's just me but I think there's a difference between give and loan...
 
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MS states they'd GIVE you free extra storage for a year when they really mean LOAN you extra storage at no extra cost for a year. Maybe it's just me but I think there's a difference between give and loan...
I've been given a free one year licenses for a few products. I've never seen this as a loan, even though at the end of the term the license was gone. A loan is something that has to be paid back. Unless there is a contract keeping you with the 20GB, there is no pay back variables that are not of your own free will. This is a gift, if you want it, there is a end date to sign up.
 
I've been given a free one year licenses for a few products. I've never seen this as a loan, even though at the end of the term the license was gone. A loan is something that has to be paid back. Unless there is a contract keeping you with the 20GB, there is no pay back variables that are not of your own free will. This is a gift, if you want it, there is a end date to sign up.
I fully understand but this is Indian giving to me. As far as I'm concerned, once you give somebody something, that's it, you don't ask for it back again. MS should've said they'd let us use 20Gb extra storage free for a year but they use the word GIVE. I'm prepared to accept the GIFT of 20Gb storage but not prepared to pay for it because it's a GIFT and when you GIVE a GIFT, you GIVE it for life without expecting remuneration Their definitions of the words GIVE and GIFT is different to the accepted meaning but then these large corporations are a law unto themselves.
I'm tired of this subject now and no, I wont be accepting their offer.
 
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@skid
I quoted above that Samsung is doing same, only difference is they are 'loaning' 50GB for two years, so what makes it different from what MS is doing? I haven't got answer to my question.

As far as 'Gift' thing goes, that is a totally different matter. I see it as a marketing tool, not as a 'gift' the way it is perceived here. So both Samsung and MS are doing same thing, but that is just my opinion.
 
@skid
I quoted above that Samsung is doing same, only difference is they are 'loaning' 50GB for two years, so what makes it different from what MS is doing? I haven't got answer to my question.

As far as 'Gift' thing goes, that is a totally different matter. I see it as a marketing tool, not as a 'gift' the way it is perceived here. So both Samsung and MS are doing same thing, but that is just my opinion.
I usually ignore these types of "free gifts" in fact I never even notice them because a lot of companies operate this way. This one from MS caught my attention because they sent me an email. Invariably I just delete marketing emails without bothering to open them but this one came from MS and I didn't realise it was a marketing email (I guess MS's spam filter doesn't work on their own emails) otherwise it would've got the same treatment and I would've been non the wiser.What annoyed me was the fact it's not a free gift at all (aren't all gifts supposed to be free?) but a time limited offer proclaiming to be a gift. When I saw it on these forums I vented my distaste. If other companies have sent me similar offers in the past (and I'm sure they have) then I've never seen them because as I've said, I simply delete marketing emails without opening them.
 
So what happens after a year to your stuff after a year after you've used 19Gb of your "free" storage? Do they just delete your files & photo's or pass them on to the NSA. I see it as another shameful way to try extort more money from the consumer.
As a Windows phone user myself I feel M$ can take this "generous" offer and shove it where the sun don't shine. I'll store my photo's and files myself thanks.
I'm switching back to an Android phone early in the new year. I've had enough of WP.

After the year you don't lose anything, you simply can't add files until you're below the limit (or you purchase the higher capacity).
 
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