Why are you leaving Windows Mobile over OneDrive storage reductions?

[Windows Central Question]

I've seen many people here and on Reddit who say that they're leaving Windows Mobile and cancelling their Lumia 950/XL preorder over it. This doesn't seem very logical. Backing up photos can be done through several applications -- Flickr, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. -- on Windows Mobile, iOS and Android. I'm upset with Microsoft for changing their policy too, however I don't think it warrants giving up on Windows Mobile.

 

[salazka]

Secure means you do not know the contents of the stored data. Not the volume of them. Obviously since we save files on their servers they know how many files and how much space we consume. Regardless, they should not have done this. They could simply cap at a generous 10TB and solve it without PR or user cost.

 

[WaverunningGeek]

YES IT DOES and the fact that you don't understand why is troubling because it means others may not understand either.

Let's look at the facts:

(1) Microsoft offered unlimited storage to Office 365 subscribers.
(2) Some users decided to take advantage of the offer and stored everything they have. (I used 3TB out of the 10TB they gave me.)
(3) Less than 1 year later, Microsoft writes an angry blog accusing their customers of abuse and punishes ALL of their customers as a result. They tried to hide this blog from the news cycle by publishing it at 10pm on the evening before the US election. And notice how no one put their name on the blog?

Obviously this is bad behavior on multiple levels. Our parents have taught us that bad behavior must be punished our else that bad behavior will continue. The only way to punish a company is with money. That means:

(1) Wallet - Don't buy their services.
(2) Word Of Mouth - Encourage your friends and colleagues to not buy their services.
(3) Litigation - Sue them for bait and switch, bad faith, etc.

Mind you, it wasn't that long ago that Microsoft treated their customers in this craptastic manor with the XBOX ONE launch debacle. They could have handled this in other ways like banning users they deemed excessive or grandfathering in current users instead of punishing them. They also know those options are available to them, but disregarded them.

This whole debacle simply proves that :

(1) Microsoft doesn't know what the hell it's doing
(2) Microsoft continues to violate consumer trust
(3) Microsoft doesn't care about customers.

So leaving Windows Mobile is just the beginning. In 2016, I'm leaving the ecosystem and moving to either Apple or Google (depending on how the Chrome/Android rumors pan out). Yes it will be expensive and yes it will be a pain in the @$$, but try to think of multiple examples where Apple or Google treats its customers this way. I honestly can't think of any...which is why Apple has the highest customer satisfaction rate in tech and why Google has the dominant mobile platform.

I've seen many people here and on Reddit who say that they're leaving Windows Mobile and cancelling their Lumia 950/XL preorder over it. This doesn't seem very logical. Backing up photos can be done through several applications -- Flickr, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. -- on Windows Mobile, iOS and Android. I'm upset with Microsoft for changing their policy too, however I don't think it warrants giving up on Windows Mobile.

 

[AndyCalling]

Sounds great for you, but how many people have the skills, patience, and care to really make personal storage safe, secure, and durable? A couple of days ago my wife dropped her less than year-old tablet and destroyed it. My daughter destroys laptops on average of about once every two years. My family goes through phones like they are disposable. That's why a lot of people can't depend on a piece of hardware lasting long. Not to mention things like massive power surges, floods, fires, theft, cyber crime, etc. The average person's cyber security for their local storage is hopeless compared to the Googles, Microsofts, and Amazons of the world. This is normal in the world--stuff happens. So you build a special watertight chamber in the basement for your NAS, and then the house burns down. Or you have a mirrored NAS at some friend's house and it is stolen along with all your data. Most likely, your super-reliable NAS just dies on you by coincidence on the same day the mirrored one was stolen. Despite all its problems, cloud storage makes the most sense for the vast majority of people, and for some people it is the only option--road warriors, people who live on boats or in RVs, people who live off the grid and need backup when around WiFi, military families that never know when they will be told to move tomorrow, retirees who go south every six months, etc., etc.

It is great for me, and the many others who buy these very popular NAS systems from regular high street stores. This approach is no longer exotic. It is actually easier to upload to my NAS over the internet (decent apps) than Onedrive.

For those that don't back up or encrypt, they will always have problems. That's why these things are considered essential and not optional. All you can do is repeat the mantra. Cloud storage is no replacement, especially Onedrive which is clearly a readily movable feast. Don't rely on someone else to lock your door for you or look after your bank card, and don't trust them with your lifetime of data either. Just basic, common sense.

 

[Ten Four]

Don't rely on someone else to lock your door for you or look after your bank card, and don't trust them with your lifetime of data either. Just basic, common sense.

It may be "common sense," but it is wrong. Far, far more people have lost data because they had it stored locally than have lost data in the cloud. I was just having this argument with someone who lost all of his photos stored on his phone and his SD card because he doesn't trust having them automatically uploaded to something like Google Photos. The likelihood of your house burning down or your NAS dieing is far greater than OneDrive's multiple servers going out. But, I do agree the cloud is not really convenient or easy to use yet, and often fails to equal its promise. But, it is still vastly more secure than home brew solutions

 

[sniperboywc]

If you earn bing search points, you can pretty much pay it off by searching.

 

[AndyCalling]

It may be "common sense," but it is wrong. Far, far more people have lost data because they had it stored locally than have lost data in the cloud. I was just having this argument with someone who lost all of his photos stored on his phone and his SD card because he doesn't trust having them automatically uploaded to something like Google Photos. The likelihood of your house burning down or your NAS dieing is far greater than OneDrive's multiple servers going out. But, I do agree the cloud is not really convenient or easy to use yet, and often fails to equal its promise. But, it is still vastly more secure than home brew solutions

I always keep important data shared out to family members and so off site. NAS devices often make this very easy by automating the process, but it's pretty easy to do manually each backup day. I can see this would be an issue for people with no relations and no friends (unfortunately there's more of those than one would hope). I would still find another way even then (safe deposit or desk draw at work or some such) but I do understand that many unfortunately lonely people would not. I believe that for most home users, however, outsourced cloud storage is not the best option.

 

[wplee]

I'm both leaving and staying, let me explain...

Consumer side to my life: I was going to grab a Lumia 640XL (currently have 630) to tie me over for another year and see how 10 Mobile was and if the app gap improved. However this OneDrive storage has changed my mind. I will really miss Camera Roll auto backup. So I'm going to get a Nexus 6P (reasonable priced Android flagship with premium design and Google Photo backup) and just download all the MS apps. I was already missing apps but this bait and switch move has helped me make up my mind.

Business side to my life: I'm getting a Surface Book when it launches in the UK. I work in software so this will be my ultimate productivity device. I'll use rival cloud storage (already have a grandfathered 50GB BOX account) and will just use OneDrive now for MS Office stuff like all my spreadsheets which 5GB will be plenty.

There has never been a better time to leave (or at least try out Android or iOS). I think next fall 2016 Microsoft may have a decent Surface Phone and will be able to pull bigger developers over like Supercell, MachineZone and Snapchat. But now is the perfect time to try something else and this OneDrive PR disaster is the final straw for me and others, at least on Mobile.

 

[920Walker]

I think using both a NAS and cloud storage (paid) is the best solution. I just couldn't hold someone hosting free storage responsible if for whatever reason data was lost.

 

[AndyCalling]

It is interesting as an additional backup layer I suppose, thinking about it. I could have my NAS automatically back up to a paid cloud service. Interestingly the one service it doesn't support is Onedrive ~ but it might be worth playing with. I will never rely on it as a primary off site backup and all my vital NAS files are axcrypt with full 128bit keyfile of course (I'm not a fool, well, mostly not...). It would cover me more conveniently if my cable company messes up or something whilst I'm away from home. That is a very rare situation though (happened once) so, hmmm. I'll think about it.

 

[a5cent]

It is interesting as an additional backup layer I suppose, thinking about it. I could have my NAS automatically back up to a paid cloud service. Interestingly the one service it doesn't support is Onedrive ~ but it might be worth playing with. I will never rely on it as a primary off site backup and all my vital NAS files are axcrypt with full 128bit keyfile of course (I'm not a fool, well, mostly not...). It would cover me more conveniently if my cable company messes up or something whilst I'm away from home. That is a very rare situation though (happened once) so, hmmm. I'll think about it.

Just in case you're interested, I mentioned how you can use the cloud as a potentially unlimited backup service for a NAS at a relatively low (one-time, i.e. no subscription) price in this post:

http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-news-rumors/392008-2.htm#post3280885

The solution works exactly the way you've described, but without having to bother friends with it. ;-)

 

[erasure25]

Just like when people said they are never watching Game of Thrones again because it depicted fictional rape between fictional characters in a fictional land within a fictional storyline.... (they are still watching Game of Thrones of course). People like to make grandiose statements these days. Everything is an "outrage!" I am "outraged" at this! I am "outraged" at that! In reality, if you are the type of person who really uses a lot of cloud storage, you probably already had multi-gigabytes of terabytes from your Groove subscription, Office 365 subscriptions, etc... For me, this change has no effect on me. I'll still enjoy my 1 TB+ storage (which I use only a fraction of).

 

[AndyCalling]

Just in case you're interested, I mentioned how you can use the cloud as a potentially unlimited backup service for a NAS at a relatively low (one-time, i.e. no subscription) price in this post:

http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-news-rumors/392008-2.htm#post3280885

The solution works exactly the way you've described, but without having to bother friends with it. ;-)

Ooo, very interesting. Thanks for the tip.

 

[iyae]

And everyone should be thinking like you but like I said earlier, not everyone is in that position... Either financially, personally or depending on where they live, it just isn't possible for everyone. I think "people" forget sometimes that WP is most popular outside of the US

not everyone is in a position financially to buy a cup of coffee every month? I call BS. I really do.

 

[Richard Bouchard1]

A good network admin should be montering usage but that does not mean whats inside ! I think some here are here just to complain oh and by the way where you moving too and how much are u getting there?

 

[Ten Four]

by the way where you moving too and how much are u getting there?

Not sure yet. Google offers 15GB for free, with unlimited photos and more music than I will ever use. Despite all of the privacy concerns some have with Google you don't hear about them having security breaches, and I have read their security folks are amongst the best. I never had any problems with Google services when I used them more heavily. Hubic looks interesting with 25GB of free storage and reasonable tiers above that.

 

[Ten Four]

Dvorak gets it: Microsoft's OneDrive Bait-and-Switch

 

[Jefe32]

Agreed. I have about 70gb's of data and Office 2016 pro and removing the 100 and 200gb plans just seems stupid. 50gb and office 365 subscription as the only option seems insane. Arstechnica's article says it best when they say that if Onedrive was crucial to how Windows 10 is marketed they would have thought Microsoft was trying to kill it.

 

[Wbutchart1]

I am not concerned about the changes, i use 15gb of space and have a 365 account so lots left. I can see why folks are irritated through, as the removal of the camera bonus and the two tiers is not ideal.

I think we also need to be aware through that the reason for OneDrive means it may not offer as much as goggle for instance who want it to gain info to sell adds. OneDrive is a service, bit offers office with a 365 subscription, it is good value still especially when compared to dropbox.

 

[Jack Neill]

I don't understand the outrage over this OneDrive thing, if you use Microsoft products long enough, you get used to them taking away something from their customers. They always change stuff around and screw people over. Its just how it works with them. You get used to it....

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Despite all of the privacy concerns some have with Google you don't hear about them having security breaches

Yeah, for the same reason you don't have small time crooks stealing from the mob.