# What free online storage place gives you the most space? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135 "2012-05-16T20:30:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/1 "2012-05-16T20:30:07Z")
Free, that is. This is mostly for picture and video backup, but I"m also just curious what web site offers the most space free of charge. In a way, this is a GQ, but I’ve put it in CS since it…seems right. Mods, please move it if it is wrong. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/2 "2012-05-17T07:13:42Z")
[Here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/apr/25/google-drive-cloud-storage-compared) is a comparison of most services. Note that Dropbox has gone up 3GB in the last two weeks (you have to upload 2.5GB using their photo sync service to claim it, but after that, it’s yours), and you get 500MB for every referral. Using this, I’m now up to almost 10GB. It’s also the best in terms of system integration (therefore very easy to use) and syncing between many devices, and there are a lot of apps that support it, especially for smart phones. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/3 "2012-05-18T12:56:50Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > [Here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/apr/25/google-drive-cloud-storage-compared) is a comparison of most services. > > Note that Dropbox has gone up 3GB in the last two weeks (you have to upload 2.5GB using their photo sync service to claim it, but after that, it’s yours), and you get 500MB for every referral. Using this, I’m now up to almost 10GB. It’s also the best in terms of system integration (therefore very easy to use) and syncing between many devices, and there are a lot of apps that support it, especially for smart phones. It’s gone up to 3 GB or it has added 3 GB to the initial 2(5 GB total)? How do I use this “photo sync service” thingy? Thanks for the heads up on that by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/4 "2012-05-18T13:54:55Z")
I downloaded Dropbox a few days ago, and it had 5 gigs available to me. I’m on a Mac, and the system integration is very slick. I’d assume it’s the same on PC, so I think you’d find it very useful for what you want to do. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/5 "2012-05-18T14:00:36Z")
If it’s just for pictures and videos, does PhotoBucket have any kind of limit? Even if it did, couldn’t you just set up a second account with another email address? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/6 "2012-05-18T14:10:51Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > If it’s just for pictures and videos, does PhotoBucket have any kind of limit? Even if it did, couldn’t you just set up a second account with another email address? The problem with services like Photobucket and flikr, is that (AFAIK,) you still ahve to upload things in a clunky way…go to their website, upload five or so at a time, etc… Services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc… have very easy to use apps that you can download to your smartphone, PC, tablet, etc… For both Dropbox and Google Drive, a folder gets created that will sync anything that’s in there with your entire account across all devices. Very simple to use, anything you want uploaded just save to that directory instead of/in addition to the directory you’d save it to normally. I prefer Google Drive over Dropbox myself. It’s 5 GB, and you can get more if you want to pay some money. It integrates near seamlessly with other Google services, like Google Docs, GMail, etc…and I am a total Google whore,so it made sense that I’d us Drive so Google is one step closer to complete control of my life. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/7 "2012-05-18T14:34:07Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > The problem with services like Photobucket and flikr, is that (AFAIK,) you still ahve to upload things in a clunky way…go to their website, upload five or so at a time, etc… > > Services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc… have very easy to use apps that you can download to your smartphone, PC, tablet, etc… Photobucket let’s you upload right from your phone (I think Flikr does as well). It’s actually very straightforward. When you upload a picture to facebook or other services, photobucket will just come up as one of those services. In fact, if you so chose, after connecting to photobucket, you can set your phone so that _all_ pictures you take will just automatically be uploaded. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/8 "2012-05-18T15:59:49Z")
Since it’s about technology and not content, I’m moving this from Cafe Society to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/9 "2012-05-18T16:01:30Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > It’s gone up to 3 GB or it has added 3 GB to the initial 2(5 GB total)? > > How do I use this “photo sync service” thingy? > Thanks for the heads up on that by the way. It’s up to 3GB on top of what you had before. Using the photo sync couldn’t be easier. When you connect a device with pics on it (camera, phone, SD card) it will ask you to copy all pictures in a special folder and upload them for you. Every time you connect the device again, it will just do so without asking. In order to claim those 3GB, you have to upload 2.5GB of pictures using this exact method, but once you have them, you can delete them and never have to use that feature again, if you don’t want to. In terms of system integration, as has been said, Dropbox is the top of the game. You’ll love it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/10 "2012-05-18T19:57:16Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > It’s up to 3GB on top of what you had before. Using the photo sync couldn’t be easier. When you connect a device with pics on it (camera, phone, SD card) it will ask you to copy all pictures in a special folder and upload them for you. Every time you connect the device again, it will just do so without asking. In order to claim those 3GB, you have to upload 2.5GB of pictures using this exact method, but once you have them, you can delete them and never have to use that feature again, if you don’t want to. > > In terms of system integration, as has been said, Dropbox is the top of the game. You’ll love it. I’ve been using Dropbox for awhile, but don’t see that feature. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/11 "2012-05-18T20:21:40Z")
SkyDrive is the biggest mainstream, and it now essentially integrates just as seamlessly as DropBox does. SkyDrive used to be 25 GB of free storage, but once they developed the DropBox-esque client sync ability they dropped it to 7 GB. However if you had claimed a SkyDrive account before the change you could claim your previous 25 GB under the new service for free. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/12 "2012-05-18T20:22:57Z")
Something not mentioned in the article linked is Amazon Cloud Drive or whatever it is called, it’s 5 GB for free but I don’t believe it has any real client sync type capabilities, it’s more of a pure cloud based approach. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-online-storage-place-gives-you-the-most-space/622135/13 "2012-05-19T08:34:59Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I’ve been using Dropbox for awhile, but don’t see that feature. You need to upgrade to the newest software version to do that.