I have been an Amazon Prime member for about three years now. I live in a rural area so being able to have everyday items delivered to my door at a good price is extremely convenient for me. I visit the Amazon website a few times a week, and order at least a couple of items on there per month. I have spent so much time in the last few years on Amazon that I was really surprised to learn that my Amazon Prime membership included benefits that I had never heard of and wasn’t taking advantage of!

Amazon Cloud Drive is a service provided to Amazon Prime members and it lets you store an unlimited number of photos on the Amazon “cloud’. For years now I have kept a folder on my computer where I store ALL my photos as a backup in case my memory card gets full, damaged or lost. Having all those photos stored on my computer takes its toll and having a slow computer is a big problem when I need to get work done for the blog.

I was eager to try out using Amazon Cloud Drive as an alternative way to back up my photos. I was prompted to download some software, and after logging in (using my Amazon login info) I had the option of choosing to upload all of the common files on my computer (Such as everything in ‘my docs’ and ‘my pictures’ or just choosing specific folders. I placed my memory card in my laptop and decided to just backup the files from my memory card for now. My memory card automatically makes a new folder for each month, and I had three months worth of photos on my memory card, so I selected those three files. Then the system automatically started backing up those files onto Amazon Cloud Drive.

As I mentioned, my computer has been a bit bogged down lately but I was a bit surprised at how long it took for Amazon Cloud Drive to back up my photos. It took about 16 hours in total to back up three months worth of my photos, but these are all BIG files because my camera takes large photos that I dramatically resize once uploaded and none of them had been resized yet. Thankfully, while the program was running my computer wasn’t running any slower than usual so I was able to just let it work in the background as I went on about my usual computer tasks.

It was so freeing to be able to clear off my memory card once the process was over. I have a large memory card but it still gets full every 3.5-4 months. I love that I can now regularly clean it off without having to bog my computer down with all those files or risk losing them. I am eager to eventually clear off my computer by adding all of my old photos as well.

Once your photos are on Amazon Cloud Drive, you can rearrange the folders however you’d like. For example, you could make a special folder for a certain vacation. You have the ability to send folders of photos via email to friends or family members.

In addition to the unlimited photo space, Amazon Prime members get 5GB of additional storage for videos, movies, music and files. If you are a heavy file, music or video user you can upgrade to a larger plan. The Unlimited Everything Plan includes unlimited photo, video, file and music storage for $59.99 a month (that’s less than $5 a month!). Or, if you aren’t a prime member but would like to access the unlimited photo + 5GB of additional storage plan like prime members get, you can pay $11.99 per year to have access to that plan without buying Amazon Prime.

Have you been taking advantage of the Amazon Cloud Drive program on your Amazon Prime? Would you feel better knowing your photos were backed up without weighing down your devices?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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