Running out of cloud storage? Here's how to avoid paying for 2TB

Osmond Chia Enhanced photo quality, ultra-high-resolution videos and a growing collection of photos over the years have significantly increased the storage usage on mobile devices. In no time, users will inevitably receive a prompt that it is time to upgrade their storage.

- Osmond Chia

Yet, cloud storage plans are not tiered in a more granular way. Once past 200GB, both Google and Apple's i Cloud users are offered a pricey 2TB plan - at more than double the cost monthly - as the next available option.

The Straits Times explores ways to avoid the 2TB jump.

Q What is taking up so much space?

A The biggest culprit for most us-ers is likely photos and videos.

These include both content captured by the user's camera and media exchanged on Whats App and other messaging apps.

The size of media files increases dramatically with "pro" camera modes on both the latest Apple and Android devices. Photo sizes can be anywhere up to 45MB on today's advanced photography modes, which preserve more details in each shot for users to edit.

Mobile apps can also occupy cloud storage space.

Once the storage limit is reached, users can no longer back up any photos or videos. Users will also be unable to receive and send e-mails under their respective Google and i Cloud accounts.

Q How much is cloud storage?

A Apple and Google offer cloud storage plans of up to 200GB for just shy of $4 a month.