YOU’LL NEED THIS

MEGA ACCOUNT

New Zealand-based cloud storage provider with generous 20GB free limit.

APPLE HAS JUST HIKED THE PRICE OF ICLOUD+. The online storage service, which helps sync your iPhone and iPad with Windows, is still free if you use 5GB or less, but beyond that 50GB costs $0.99 a month, 200GB costs $2.99 and, if you need the maximum of 2TB, it’s $9.99.

Apple increased those prices in June by up to 29 per cent, rising from $0.79, $2.49, and $7.99 respectively. Granted, iCloud+ offers more than just storage, also giving you automatic photo backups, custom email addresses and more (see full pricing options at support.apple. com/en-us/HT201238), but not everyone needs all of those features.

If that’s left you wondering whether you could find cloud storage for free elsewhere, the answer is: yes. And that’s true for Android and Windows as well as Apple’s iOS and macOS. As we’ll explain, if you unlock hidden storage and combine services, you might accumulate enough space to downgrade your paid accounts—or get rid of them altogether.

–NIK RAWLINSON

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1GET FREE STORAGE WITHOUT CATCHES (MOSTLY)

Let’s start with the big-name storage services. Google Drive (https://drive.google.com) is the most generous, giving you 15GB for free. That’s much higher than Microsoft’s OneDrive (www.onedrive.com) and Dropbox, which offer only 5GB and 2GB respectively. Bear in mind though that Google’s 15GB storage is shared across all your Google accounts, including Gmail and Photos. Likewise, Microsoft counts Outlook. com email attachments in your OneDrive storage.