Why You Should Use More Than One Cloud Storage Service (and How to Choose Them)
In recent weeks, you may have come across the sad story of a OneDrive user who found himself without access to 30 years of his work and data after Microsoft — seemingly without any explanation or warning — cut off access to his cloud storage and all of his data.
I won’t go into the details of this particular case, but it’s a reminder that you really do need more than one backup to be completely confident that your digital safety net is big enough. From hacks to floods, the ways in which your files can be destroyed are many and varied, and we’ve written before about the dangers of using only one backup for the files that matter most to you.
As you might expect from someone who subscribes to three music streaming services , I also pay for more than one cloud storage service. Sure, it’s an extra expense, but if you think about how important your data is, you might find it’s worth the investment—here’s the deal, and some tips on how to make it work.
Choose your cloud storage services
Not all cloud storage services are created equal, and you’ll need to do some thinking when choosing which ones to combine. For example, Apple’s iCloud Drive works great on Apple devices, but support for Windows computers is more spotty, and there’s no support for Android phones and tablets.
Dropbox is one of the best options for additional backups because it is not tied to any of the big three mobile and desktop platforms: Apple, Microsoft, and Google. It works efficiently and silently in the background on Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS, and integrates well with all of them. Proton Drive is another good alternative to the big three.
When choosing, I’d recommend looking at the available desktop and mobile clients, as well as web interfaces: if you lose access to your primary devices, you may have to rely on web apps to access important data, so the ability to open, share, and move files is essential.
Consider the extras you get, too: Pay $20 a month for Google AI Pro (formerly Google One AI Premium ), and you not only get 2TB of cloud storage to experiment with, but also access to Gemini’s best AI models. With Microsoft OneDrive , meanwhile, you can pay $10 a month for both 1TB of storage and all of the Office desktop apps.
Let it all work together
Ideally, you want your laptop or desktop to be your main hub for multiple backups, because it’s a little easier to manage multiple apps and services than on a phone or tablet. Try consolidating everything into one folder and its subfolders so you always know what’s being backed up and what’s not.
Check the settings for your chosen apps, and you should find that you can customize which folders are included in the backup. Clients for Apple iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive can sync files from your desktop as well as your user account folders, for example—it’s just a matter of selecting the folders you want from a list.
Another common feature of most cloud storage services is the ability to store both local copies of files and copies in the cloud. Usually, you’ll only want to use placeholders on your laptop or desktop computer to free up hard drive space, but if you have the option, it’s best to keep full copies of everything for all the reasons already mentioned (and in case your internet goes down).
When you set up two-way sync on your chosen cloud storage services, any changes you make locally will be synced to the cloud and vice versa. There’s always the risk of accidentally deleting files, which will delete copies in each location, but all major cloud storage apps will warn you of bulk deletions and keep deleted files for a few weeks in case you need to recover them.
Try to reduce expenses
I understand that we live in expensive times, and you’re probably already paying for enough digital subscriptions — adding another cost on top just in case Google’s cloud storage servers go down may seem excessive. But these problems happen .
One way to try to keep costs down is to share one or more cloud storage services with other people. Many major providers offer family plans, so you can share the financial burden with a loved one, or maybe they can store a second backup for you and you can store a second backup for them so you don’t pay twice. Also consider bundled services like Apple One .
You can also take advantage of the free dedicated storage that’s available. These are pretty paltry — 15GB for Google Drive, Google Photos, and Gmail, for example — but if you use them as emergency backups rather than primary backups, they can provide enough space to store your most important files, the ones you absolutely can’t live without.
If you can’t or don’t want to sign up for another cloud storage provider, consider creating a secondary backup on an external hard drive and regularly updating the files on it: you’ll still be able to access it if something happens to your cloud storage. Just make sure it’s not in the same physical location as your laptop or desktop, as a fire, flood, or theft could quickly destroy both copies of your files in one go.