Wolf Greenblatt <wolf@greenblatt.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 3 Feb 2024 15:38:31 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:
>
>>> It would be nice if we can come up with the "best" free cloud storage which
>>> has the least limitations & the most privacy for around 10 to 15GB storage.
>>
>> Lots of online articles found by searching "best free cloud storage",
>
> Most are worthless shills. I know this because once in a while I know what
> the best app for a task is, oh, say, Irfanview on Windows for image
> viewing. Nothing is better, right?

I've used both Irfanview and XnView Classic, and both where concurrently
installed to try both. I dropped Irfanview, and went to XnView. So,
no, what are your favorites or meet your criteria may not be considered
best by criteria of others.

You don't mention just how you intent to use cloud storage. Could be
copies of files, copies of backup files, offline storage from your own
hosts, for images, for doc files, to use as a file sharing service, or
something else.

> Well, if you look at the articles found, most don't even mention
> Irfanview.

https://www.google.com/search?q=best+image+viewer+windows+review

Irfanview first in the table list. It has an antiquated GUI, and
reviewers often look at what is or looks new.

https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/top-windows-photo-viewer/
https://beebom.com/best-photo-viewers-windows-10/
https://www.movavi.com/learning-portal/best-photo-viewers-windows-10.html
https://democreator.wondershare.com/video-editor/photo-viewer-apps-windows10.html
https://windowsreport.com/photo-viewers-windows-10/
and the list goes on and on.

Some of those are reviews by authors who note other products than their
own. Search results refute your unsubstantiated claim.

> I don't know why but I suspect ...

So, you don't know.

> My point is that most "best free cloud storage" articles are going to be
> worthless shills - because they're trying to sell you something.

Learn how to search online.

> When I ask here on this group, nobody is trying to sell me anything.

Except their opinion on what they use, so their slant is their opinion,
and their criteria may be significantly different than yours.

>> like:
>> https://www.techradar.com/best/best-free-cloud-storage-service
>
> This is the order of the links that article provided where I skimmed
> each to look for how much storage is really free, & summarize below.
> 2GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/internxt-cloud-storage
> $$$ https://www.techradar.com/reviews/icedrive
> $$$ https://www.techradar.com/reviews/degoo
> $20 https://www.techradar.com/reviews/mega
> 15GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/google-drive
> 3GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/nordlocker
> 5GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/apple-icloud
> 5GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/microsoft-onedrive-for-office-365
> 2GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/dropbox-cloud-storage-review
> $$$ https://www.techradar.com/reviews/backblaze
> 5GB https://www.techradar.com/reviews/synccom
>
> Note that only Maga says "no credit card required" I think, which is
> another requirement because once they get your card, you're dead.

Since when has Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Dropbox required a
credit card to create an account, and use the free quota of storage?
Having to create an account to get their free storage quota is not the
same as giving them credit card info.

Note that there are Android apps that operate as aggregators or
consolidators of multiple cloud storage accounts. You can add multiple
cloud accounts to the consolidator app, and it somewhat makes all the
online storage quota look unified. However, you still cannot use more
storage quota than you have in an account, and are still restricted to
file size and bandwidth limits imposed by each account. For example:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.syndoc.merlin

If you get their Pro version ($3/mo), you get a 100 GB storage quota
along with management of your other cloud storage accounts. With the
free cloud storage services available, you can combine them into a
rather large cloud drive; however, they are not combined in their
quotas, so you still have limits based on each account. Their sync
client acts like a file manager to view all your cloud accounts, so it
is easier to copy files between cloud services. However, I use OneDrive
(15 GB), Google Drive (15 GB), and Dropbox (2 GB), and all I have to do
to move files across cloud services is just use the Windows File Manager
to copy/move files between the folders monitored by their local sync
clients.

Instead of having to use multiple brand-specific sync clients on your
devices, you use one to view them all. The big cloud providers (that
you want to avoid) supply their APIs to let programs access their cloud
service.

https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/about-sdk
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/onedrive-concept-overview
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/overview
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/API/Welcome.html
https://developer.box.com/reference/

I'm sure there are other cloud storage consolidator apps. This is one I
remembered from a recent newsgroup discussion suggested by someone else.
That's on my desktop PC. I have OneDrive and Google Drive on my Android
phone, so I could use a file manager there to move, rename, copy, delete
files on those cloud services, but using a unified cloud manager might
be easier on Android.

If you're afraid of a cloud provider stealing your highly sensitive
files you sync to their cloud, just make sure to encrypt it locally, so
it is stored encrypted on their server. While you can use 7-zip, Peazip
(a fork of 7-zip with more features and nicer GUI), you can also use
web-centric apps that locally encrypt. I use MS OneNote which is free
on Windows (as Win32 and UWP app), MacOS, iOS, and Android to
synchronize notes across devices. I can encrypt some, or all, sections
in a notebook, so that data is encrypted locally, and up on the OneDrive
server. Without the password, no one can see those notebook sections.
And I do NOT use the same notebook passwords as for my account login
(which get their own unique password, so login passwords are NOT reused
or shared across domains).

>> However, "best" doesn't mean all your criteria will get satisfied.
>
> My criteria are pretty simple. Free. No credit card.
> A login is OK. No ads. No file size limit. No time limits.

While I have OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox accounts, I rarely need
to use their web site, and that's the only I would see ads, if any.
Plus, I have uBlock Origin add-on in my web browser that would smash
most ads such sites might want to push in my face. As for the sync
clients on my desktop PC and Android phone, I *never* see ads from
theme. Plus, I'm only in their local apps when I need to change
configuration, not when I want to put files where they monitor to sync
online (and then to another device). I don't know where are all these
ads you claim are disrupting or interferring with their use.

> What else are the things almost everyone would want?
>
>> Get too greedy on criteria using someone else's dollar, and you'll criteria
>> yourself out of many choices.
>
> That's the whole point. To cull out the bad guys.

No, you're culling out the guys that want to stay in business. No one
must be altruistic so you can freeload. Manpower, servers, bandwidth,
and software cost money. 100% free services are hard to survive.
Someone has to foot the bill you don't want to pay despite you are using
their services, resources, and property.

You keep making the "big guys" into bad guys, but you make claims that
I've not experienced ever with Google, Microsoft, or Dropbox. No credit
card, and no ads. As for fear of theft of your data, well, that's your
responsibility to encrypt before sync, or find a service that includes
in-transit (end-to-end) encryption. Mega looks to do that, but only if
you use their app. When connecting to their web site, you're already
using HTTPS, so your data is already encrypted in-transit.

> What bills? It's got to be free. Like really free. Zero dollars. Ever.

And several have been mentioned, including big bad guys who do NOT get
your credit card, and have free service tiers for freeloaders, like you
and me.

> What I want is the following.
> 1. At least 10 GB or more for free with file sizes at least 2GB (movies).
> 2. No credit card. At most I'll create an account. But that's it.
> 3. I don't care about encryption (I can do it myself).
> 4. I don't care about synchronization (I can do it myself).

Several have already been mentioned. You get to create an account, and
they have a free service tier, and I've not seen one that asks for a
credit card until you choose to upgrade to a higher service tier. Go
test yourself. If you find some limitation, or behavior, you don't like
with their free tier, drop them and test another. You have maybe half a
dozen to check. What anyone can give you here is their experience with
one or two candidates, or recite to you the specs on those services you
could read yourself. You have nothing to loss except your time to
determine which is really best for you, not what someone else says is
best for you.