Technological divorce and marriage/ only diamonds last forever

I’m getting a divorce. But not from my wife, we’re good, even very good. From my cloud storage service.

Life is based on our relationships with people, nature, things we use or are surrounded by. In the closest circle we want to be with people we love, things which are making us happier or helping to be more productive, save time to spend it with family, friends, our pets or ourselves.

When more is too much

I started using Dropbox about 3 years ago. I really liked it, I could access my files from various devices and share them easily. Since a while I’m following the strategy to minimise all the data I store in my cloud, not to expand it just because I can, but making conscious decisions not to keep crap.

Quite a lot about the carbon footprint of the Internet and a world wide waste you can read on Gerry McGovern blog

I had mixed feelings when Dropbox announced that they are increasing subscription fee but also doubling the space available in the cloud storage. I’ve been using this service for almost 3 years and I was using about 50% of the available space. With the change I was using 25% having 75% waiting, but what for? The magic cloud is not just a concept. These are physical centres with physical consequences.
As nothing is for free there’s also an increase in the price despite it’s not the extra service I asked for, but I can’t refuse it without deleting my account.

Looking for alternatives

I was reluctant towards Microsoft. This company is making me angry. Don’t know why exactly. But when I looked at its offer with the price similar to my old one, I realised they have a package which ideally suits my needs and also allows my wife to join me and have her own storage allowance using a *separate account.

*Using one Dropbox account by two people (even with bigger capacity) is not a good idea. Conflicts we had because of her free spirit strategy of managing her files were driving me crazy and filling my laptop’s hard drive with new files which weren’t the one I wanted to synchronise (new folders created within a synchronised folder on the same account are automatically appearing on synchronised devices).

So despite I don’t like the monopoly of Microsoft offering storage and Office suite with one subscription (what is actually handy, but in the back of my head bit worrying) I’m happy to move. Access to Word and OneNote (which I’ve got used to at work) comes handy. Dropbox Paper seemed to be a great solution but feel it became a bit neglected feature which when I checked, I couldn’t download to my Android phone. I write a lot and not always on my laptop and synchronisation and the ability to access and edit documents on various devices is really helpful and help me to be more productive.

The separation

Now I’m in the phase of separating from Dropbox. My subscription isn't cancelled yet as I’m giving myself time to tidy it up (discovering some crazy pictures I took years ago, deleting files which are doubled or tripled, dividing my and my wife’s files.) When it will be done and move all the stuff to the OneDrive I will officially sign divorce papers and say goodby.

Another chance?

Although I’m giving myself a month or two to try Office 365 out and see if it will work as I expected and let me do things I want. If not I’ll stay and use separation time to rebuild my relationship and trust with Dropbox.
At least I’ll have my files in order.

Remember services change as well as the market. Feel free to look for these which answer your needs and have an eye on what is happening. It’s always good to make life easier or save some money if possible.

Thanks for reading my 33rd post from My 52 problems series.
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