Storing things in the digital cloud is great, but what happens when the sun comes out? This fiction is becoming a reality for many Samsung Cloud users, as the company continues shutting down its cloud storage services to make room for a more monetarily beneficial deal with Microsoft. Samsung is now giving users a timetable for making the switch before everything gets deleted next year.
That's right, Samsung Cloud is officially ending Gallery Sync and Drive storage, and all data will be erased. But there's no need to freak out, because the company is giving users until next year to make the switch to Microsoft OneDrive. (Or another cloud storage service. But Samsung would probably prefer you switch to OneDrive.)
The way the company is handling this is a bit confusing, because customers will be split into two groups depending on their region, with differing timelines for each group.
Group 1
Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam
Group 2
Afghanistan, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Fiji, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macao, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestinian Territory, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican, Venezuela, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Beginning next month for Group 1, new users won't be able to use Gallery Sync and Drive with My Files at all. The company will make OneDrive migration and data download available by this time as well. For Group 2, these changes will take effect in December.
Come April 1, 2021 for Group 1 and June 1, 2021 for Group 2, existing use of Gallery Sync and Drive will be discontinued, and OneDrive migration will be ended. Users in Group 1 will still be able to download data until the end of June, when their section of the Samsung Cloud will be purged on June 30, 2021. Group 2 members can download their files until August 31, 2021.
Despite the weather not looking good for Samsung Cloud, the company says that other features like backing up, syncing, and restoring data such as contacts, calendar, and notes will remain intact for now. More information about migrating to OneDrive and downloading data will be available next month on October 5. For now, all you can do is wring your hands and worry about the forecast for Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, and Box.
Source: Samsung
Thanks: Abhijit Mondol