Apple Notifies Previous MobileMe Customers That Their Free iCloud Storage Is Ending

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Ex-MobileMe customers must now pay to enjoy their existing 25GB iCloud plans.
Ex-MobileMe customers must now pay to enjoy their existing 25GB iCloud plans.

When Apple launched iCloud last year, it killed off MobileMe and provided paid subscribers with 20GB of free iCloud storage when they migrated to the new service. Most of us have been using that storage to back up our iOS devices, but like most good things, it’s coming to an end. The company has now begun emailing previous MobileMe customers to inform them that their free storage will be no more come September 30.

With the 5GB of iCloud storage given to every user for free, MobileMe customers had 25GB of iCloud storage as soon as they claimed their accounts. That meant most of us didn’t have to hand over a penny to backup our iOS devices to the cloud, and to take advantage of iCloud services like Documents in the Cloud.

But unfortunately, Apple was only kind enough to provide that free storage for 12 months. On September 30, the offer will end, and customers will need to pay if they require more than 5GB of storage. If they don’t, their iCloud accounts will be automatically downgraded, according to Apple’s email.

Unless you take action before your downgrade takes effect, backups to iCloud will stop, and apps will no longer be able to save documents to iCloud. You can either free up storage or cancel your downgrade to keep your current storage plan for another year.

Apple’s email then provides instructions on how to do these things.

It looks like Apple won’t delete the data you already have stored in iCloud — even if you are using more than 5GB — so existing backups and documents you have stored up there will remain in place. You just won’t be able to upload anything else. If you’d like to do this, you’ll need to upgrade.

Prices start at $20 for 10GB of storage, and increase to $40 for 20GB, and $100 for 50GB. This is in addition to the 5GB of storage every user gets as standard.

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