OneDrive Gives 30GB Total If You Enable Auto Upload Now

Ramping up again its marketing tactics, Microsoft has announced a time-limited offer for OneDrive across all supported platforms. While Microsoft's cloud storage solution probably can't compete yet in terms of popularity or pricing scheme, it is trying to entice users with something that's quite hard to pass up: 30 GB of free storage.

Cloud storage services is kinda like an addiction. Service providers start you off with ample amount of free space, just large enough to give you a feeling of security. And then you use it for almost everything you have, including large files that sometimes should not belong where authorities can get access to them. Before you know it, you're storage cap is filled up and suddenly buying a subscription seems justified.

Enticing users with ample room is what OneDrive is doing now. Last June, Microsoft more than doubled OneDrive's initial free offering from 7 GB to 15 GB to match Google Drive's starting space. Now, Microsoft is doubling it again but with a very inconsequential requirement. You need to enable OneDrive's Camera Roll to auto upload photos. If you do this now, you will get an additional 15 GB of space, all for free. For devices that don't have lots of storage space or microSD card slots, this actually might be a good idea anyway.

Admittedly, this puts OneDrive at the top of the storage space race versus both Dropbox and Google Drive. Without OEM-specific promos, Dropbox only offers 2 GB of free space on sign-up, though you can extend that a bit beyond 5 GB through various tasks, like adding 1 GB more by linking it to its Mailbox app, 3 GB for using Dropbox's Carousel, and a few MB more for referring new users. Google Drive, on the other hand, offers 15 GB up front. Last year, Google made a special promo that handed out 10 GB more if they installed QuickOffice on Android and iOS. But even with 25 GB, OneDrive's effective 30 GB space still trumps it.

This promo is being marketed in time for the launch of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but the offer is good even for Android, Windows Phone, and Windows desktop users as well. Better hurry though, as the promo is only valid until the end of September. The additional free storage is unlikely disappear if you disable the Camera Roll feature before the promo ends, but if you want to be sure, you can always leave it turned on until then.

SOURCE: Microsoft