Amazon makes another controversial change to your account after shock Prime price rise

Amazon customers have just been warned that they’ll soon start paying more for Prime and if that wasn’t bad enough the online retailer has also now announced another controversial change coming to some accounts. From next year anyone who uses the firm’s Drive service will need to make sure they remove some of their files as this cloud storage platform is being shut down for good.

The change is coming into force from December 31, 2023, with the retail giant confirming that files kept on Amazon Drive will no longer be available to customers.

“We understand that content saved on Amazon Drive is very important to our customers. We will communicate our plan to remove or delete files prior to December 31, 2023 and provide sufficient time for customers to save their files.”

For those not aware, Amazon Drive is currently a secure online storage service for photos, videos, and files with customers getting 5 GB for free. This can be boosted via monthly fee but not for much longer as all accounts will be closed next year.

Although that’s not great for anyone keeping documents, music and software on Amazon’s Drive service it’s not all bad news.

That’s because the firm is still offering to keep hold of photos and videos that customers want to store safely away from their PCs.

In fact, Amazon says that all image and video content will be automatically switching over to its Amazon Photos platform with customers able to use their current login to check that things have been copied across successfully.

Amazon says that it’s making the change to more fully focus its efforts on Amazon Photos to provide customers with a dedicated solution for photos and video storage.

If you do keep files on Amazon Drive you’ve got until December 2023 to move them to a rival service such as Google Drive or Microsoft’s OneDrive.

News of this closure comes as Prime prices are rising for the first time in years with customers being hit by higher fees from September 15. The new charges mean anyone who pays for Prime on a monthly basis will now pay £8.99 rather than £7.99. Meanwhile, the price of a yearly subscription is rising from £79 to £95.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “Prime offers the best of shopping and entertainment, and continues to improve each year. We have increased the number of products available with fast, unlimited Prime delivery, recently added ultra-fast fresh grocery delivery, and have significantly expanded our high-quality digital entertainment, including TV, movies, music, games, and books. With increased inflation and operating costs in the UK continuing to rise, we will change the price of Prime.”