Got an email address? Use a computer? Is that a smartphone in your pocket? Then you need to get yourself some cloud storage. Having an always-accessible repository of your most important photos and files makes sharing files with friends less of a hassle and grants you peace of mind. With options from every major tech company, you might find yourself drawn to one or another based on the tech you use on a daily basis and what each service offers.

If you’re having problems with your PlayStation 4 and need to get it fixed — or need a replacement — you don’t need to lose your game save data. Using cloud backups, you can upload all of your information beforehand, allowing you to quickly download it again and continue playing once you get your system back.

There are a lot of services you can use to host your files in the cloud. Dropbox is one solid option, even though it doesn’t give you a lot of storage to play with if you aren’t paying its monthly fee. Still, it’s an incredibly convenient way to access a shared pool of files across your computers and devices.

Even if it’s reached “household name” status for software, here’s a guide to getting the most out of this great storage solution.

Dropbox is facing some stiff competition as they move from purely being a storage infrastructure provider to a business that brings essential cloud storage infrastructure to companies. But they continue to boost the storage they are bringing. Customers on Dropbox's Professional and Business Standard tiers will be getting an extra terabyte of space for no additional fees from today.

There's nothing inherently wrong with Dropbox, Google Drive, or whatever popular service you use to back files up to the cloud and keep them synchronised between your multiple desktops and laptops. However, data privacy is becoming a bigger deal and we wouldn't question you if you're ready to make the leap away from these kinds of services.

Google is revamping its online storage offerings with a new-look, new-name product dubbed Google One. How much will it cost and what's going to happen to existing Google Drive customers? Here's what you need to know!

When we last rounded up our staff's Weekly Upgrades, our editors were easing ourselves back into the gym, exploring new holiday options, finding the best music for Getting Stuff Done, and buying wine that comes in cans.

Mac: If you're migrating from one iMac to another (shinier) one after the holidays, or helping someone set up their new MacBook Pro to replace their old MacBook Air, you might be tempted to use iCloud Drive to move some important files you need to access in a hurry. Unfortunately, if you're moving files from a Mac running Sierra to one running High Sierra, your documents, images and other files might lose some metadata in the process.

There's no debating the handiness of cloud storage, but most services out there can get fairly pricey, even if you're just looking to tuck away some files for safekeeping. That's why Zoolz shines as a smarter way to store your personal data, especially with plans going on sale for more than 90 percent off.

Building an online service and API is a difficult business. Once you've actually spent the time putting it together, writing up good documentation and delivering something reliable and stable, you potentially have to support it for a long time. But not forever. In Dropbox's case, it pulled the plug this week on its original API, v1, leaving tardy developers -- and their users -- with potentially non-functional apps.

Android: If you have an Android device, you most likely have a backup of it stored in your Google Drive account. Unfortunately, as one user discovered, that backup can expire in 60 days if you leave your Android device untouched, even if you have more than enough space to store it yourself.

Google's Backup and Sync software will be taking over completely from Google Drive for PC/Mac later this year. Support for Google Drive will terminate on 11 December 2017 and the service will shut down completely on 12 March 2018. For G Suite admins, that means you’ll see settings in the Admin console for Drive File Stream. Google is turning Drive File Stream on today for all customers.

There's no debating the handiness of cloud storage, but most services out there can get fairly pricey, even if you're just looking to tuck away some files for safe keeping. That's why Zoolz shines as a smarter way to store your personal data, especially with plans going on sale for more than 90 percent off.

Yesterday, one of the best cloud backup services, CrashPlan, announced it was ending support for consumers. CrashPlan for Home will be put to rest on 23 October 2018. While the option to sign up for or renew your CrashPlan for Home subscription is gone, current CrashPlan for Home users will receive an extra 60 days of backup service gratis.

Microsoft's further blurring the distinction between local and cloud storage with a file-syncing feature letting you treat online files like offline ones.

If you're not prepped to handle an unexpected loss of your personal data, Google has you covered. It finally released its Backup & Sync service, which lets you upload and sync files from any folder on your computer or connected drives to Google Drive without moving them around. It won't replace a comprehensive backup service such as Crashplan, but is definitely something to look into if you have no real backup plan.

Dealing with network latency, particularly with large files is a significant issue. And while cloud services can help, we are often constrained by upload capacity from our ISPs. The Morro Data CacheDrive, created by Paul Tien - the guy who created ReadyNAS which was eventually acquired by Netgear, aims to solve that with a device that sits on your network and provides fast access to files by caching files so they are made available quickly and easily.

If you don't have an offsite cloud storage plan (and you really should), Google's newest update to its cloud storage service Google Drive is ready to fix your gaping data backup hole by letting you pick which folders on your device you'd like to back up to Google Drive instead of forcing you to put the files into a single Google Drive folder. It's called Backup & Sync.

Dropbox is giving Australian users a performance boost with the opening of a new local point of presence. Running their own dedicated equipment in one of Equinix's Sydney data centres, Dropbox's Dan Iverson, the head of solutions architecture APAC, said the new PoP will act as a proxy server improving performance for Australian users. It follows on the steps of similar initiatives in other regions.