To make a long story short: About two years ago, I purchased a Samsung smartphone and with it, I got an offer of 100GB of free OneDrive storage space. The catch: It would only be valid for 2 years. I activated it, thinking that I would never manage to make use of it, so it wouldn't hurt losing these 100GB after two years. I was wrong.
I have been using both Dropbox and OneDrive for storing and syncing my most important work files (so that I can access them anytime from any place) but still 100GB is an awful lot of space for me; if I recall well, I was using about 20 of my OneDrive's 30GB available back at that time. To me, having access to my files is crucial; no matter if I am at the office, at home or even on the road, I may have to access my files - both personal and work.
Since then, I made some important revisions in the way I used my free (maxed at 5.8GB) Dropbox account: I had to.move ALL my personal files from Dropbox to OneDrive (so that I maximized the space available for my work files) while using some OneDrive storage for my work, too. At the same time, I used my OneDrive storage space for syncing all photos and videos recorded through my Windows Phone.
Today, I needed to edit one of the files I keep on OneDrive, only to receive a message that I could not edit nor sync my files, as I have exceeded my free quota! What had happened is that not only had the 100GB Samsung offer expired, but I had managed to exceed my 30GB of free OneDrive storage (by about 4,5GB) in the meantime! The issue was apparently caused by me constantly shooting photos and videos with my Lumia smartphone, which led to an increased online backup / sync size while I kept adding work and personal files.
It took me more than a couple of hours to clean up the mess: I started by finding the biggest files, which were obviously the videos. I downloaded a batch of them, moved them to an external hard disk and kept an online backup on my YouTube channel. I also deleted some obsolete files (I even found some large map files and apps for my long-gone Windows 5.0 Mio P350 PDA / Pocket PC!) and duplicate ones, and downloaded my enormous collection of e-books.
In the end I managed to reduce my files to less than 30GB but still I needed to find a way to free more space for both my work and personal files that I keep online. This highlighted (for once more) the need for having (a) a reliable sync / online backup system and (b) a constant control over the files that need to be backed up and synced online (so that e.g. redundant and duplicate files will be removed ASAP).
I will surely have to rethink my sync / online backup approach (tools, workflows and files) so that I can exploit existing options and be as efficient as possible. I will probably have to include Google Drive in the picture, as it provides enough storage and an easy to use desktop client for automating the process. I will only need time to do so - and time is scarce during this period...
I have been using both Dropbox and OneDrive for storing and syncing my most important work files (so that I can access them anytime from any place) but still 100GB is an awful lot of space for me; if I recall well, I was using about 20 of my OneDrive's 30GB available back at that time. To me, having access to my files is crucial; no matter if I am at the office, at home or even on the road, I may have to access my files - both personal and work.
Since then, I made some important revisions in the way I used my free (maxed at 5.8GB) Dropbox account: I had to.move ALL my personal files from Dropbox to OneDrive (so that I maximized the space available for my work files) while using some OneDrive storage for my work, too. At the same time, I used my OneDrive storage space for syncing all photos and videos recorded through my Windows Phone.
Today, I needed to edit one of the files I keep on OneDrive, only to receive a message that I could not edit nor sync my files, as I have exceeded my free quota! What had happened is that not only had the 100GB Samsung offer expired, but I had managed to exceed my 30GB of free OneDrive storage (by about 4,5GB) in the meantime! The issue was apparently caused by me constantly shooting photos and videos with my Lumia smartphone, which led to an increased online backup / sync size while I kept adding work and personal files.
It took me more than a couple of hours to clean up the mess: I started by finding the biggest files, which were obviously the videos. I downloaded a batch of them, moved them to an external hard disk and kept an online backup on my YouTube channel. I also deleted some obsolete files (I even found some large map files and apps for my long-gone Windows 5.0 Mio P350 PDA / Pocket PC!) and duplicate ones, and downloaded my enormous collection of e-books.
In the end I managed to reduce my files to less than 30GB but still I needed to find a way to free more space for both my work and personal files that I keep online. This highlighted (for once more) the need for having (a) a reliable sync / online backup system and (b) a constant control over the files that need to be backed up and synced online (so that e.g. redundant and duplicate files will be removed ASAP).
I will surely have to rethink my sync / online backup approach (tools, workflows and files) so that I can exploit existing options and be as efficient as possible. I will probably have to include Google Drive in the picture, as it provides enough storage and an easy to use desktop client for automating the process. I will only need time to do so - and time is scarce during this period...
