Samsung announced earlier this year that it is killing some features in Samsung Cloud, including Drive Storage and Gallery Sync. That means you won't be able to sync your files and images to the cloud, and any existing files you’ve backed up will be deleted.

We suspect Samsung is removing the option to back up your photo gallery to Samsung Cloud to cut storage costs, but the company still plans to continue storing data such as contacts, calendar entries, and notes. Photos and videos will no longer be supported. So, if you were using Samsung Cloud to store all your data before, you may want to find an alternative, such as Microsoft OneDrive. In fact, Samsung makes it really easy to switch to OneDrive.

If you don't use OneDrive, you have other options. Bear in mind the cut-off deadline is coming. You could lose photos if you don’t already have copies saved.

When is Samsung Cloud's cut-off date for downloading photos and videos?

Samsung has put different countries, including the US and UK, into two groups with different deadlines. It's not easy to determine your group, so it's safe to assume you’re in Group 1, which must download any photos and videos from Samsung Cloud by 30 September 2021. Group 2 has until 30 November 2021.

Note: You can try to determine which group you're in here.

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Samsung

How to download your photos and videos from Samsung Cloud before it's too late

Mobile device method

The easiest way is from your phone. Just follow the steps below, but note that steps may vary from device to device, unfortunately.

  1. Open your phone’s main Settings menu.
  2. Select Accounts and backup.
  3. Scroll down until you see: Looking for something else?
  4. Select the Samsung Cloud link.
  5. You’ll be presented with an option to download your data.

Desktop method

If you don't have enough storage available on your phone or don’t want to create duplicates, use the desktop method instead.

  1. Visit the Samsung Cloud website.
  2. Log in and click on Gallery.
  3. You’ll see the option to download any images.
    • Weirdly, you can’t preview the images before you download them.
    • If you have several gigabytes of data stored, you will see smaller download files.

How to easily move your Samsung Cloud photos and videos to Microsoft OneDrive

Those of you who own a Samsung device may have already seen a notification asking you to migrate to OneDrive. Samsung launched this migration in October 2020, allowing you to easily transfer all your Samsung Cloud data to OneDrive and delete it from Samsung Cloud. Microsoft was even offering the same amount of storage you already have in Samsung Cloud for free for a year. If you haven't seen this notification, no worries. Just follow the steps below.

  1. Open Samsung Cloud.
  2. Select the three-dot menu at the top-right.
  3. Tap Download My Data.
  4. Tap Next.
  5. Select Move To OneDrive
  6. Tap Confirm.
  7. All your images, videos, and files will automatically move to OneDrive.
    • This could take a lot of time depending on the amount of data.

Note: If these steps vary for you, visit Microsoft's support page here.

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Pocket-lint

Don’t want to move to Microsoft OneDrive and prefer another storage service?

If you don't use OneDrive, there are various apps available that you can use to backup Samsung Cloud data you've downloaded to your device. These apps usually only offer a certain amount of free storage, however, so look into that before you incur charges related to syncing all your media.

For example, you can use Google Photos to store photos and videos you've downloaded to your phone. Just use the Activate Backup and sync option in Google Photos. Samsung offers a support page that details the steps. You can also try Dropbox. Samsung has a support page for Dropbox too.