Amazon Cloud Drive desktop app now syncs files across computers

By Meghan McDonough April 1, 2013

Today, Amazon announced it’s upgrading its Cloud Drive service with a File Sync app for both Macs and PCs to make it even more useful. If you’re like us and a user of multiple cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive, or Amazon Cloud Drive, then listen up. Amazon’s Cloud Drive now creates a folder on your desktop and instantly syncs all the files you put in it. If you have the Cloud Drive desktop app on multiple devices, it’ll sync your files across all of them.

Sound familiar? It should. This is how Dropbox has worked from the beginning. Like Dropbox, Amazon’s Cloud Drive has a resident file folder on your PC or Mac that syncs with a website and your other devices. Amazon does offer a more generous 5GB of free storage to get you started compared to Dropbox’s 2GB, plus Cloud Drive will sync with music you’ve previously purchased from Amazon’s music service without counting it against your storage total. If 5GB isn’t enough, Amazon offers yearly plans starting at $10 for 20GB of cloud storage. Amazon’s Cloud Drive service also includes its Cloud Player, which stores 250 songs for streaming for free. There’s also an upgrade for 250,000 songs for $25 a year.

If you’re a Kindle Fire owner, Amazon’s Cloud Drive service may be even more attractive to you. Documents saved to your desktop Cloud Drive folder will be automatically synced to the Docs library on the Kindle Fire. Likewise, photos saved in Cloud Drive folder will appear on the Fire, and, if you’re an Android user, in the Cloud Drive Photos app. Speaking of Android, if you use Amazon’s cloud photo app, any pictures you take will be automatically uploaded and synced to your desktop folder. To us, this is the most useful feature; but if experience has taught us anything, it’s that those five free gigabytes can fill up with photos very quickly.

Amazon’s Cloud Drive desktop app is available today for Mac and PC. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Web
Amazon

Meghan McDonough

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Meghan J. McDonough is a Chicago-based purveyor of consumer technology and music. She previously wrote for LAPTOP Magazine…

Computing

Best Buy’s deal of the day is $150 off the MacBook Air M2

A woman working on a 2023 MacBook Air with M2 chip.

For Mac lovers, Best Buy has one of the best laptop deals at the moment with $150 off the MacBook Air M2. Usually priced at $999, you can buy it for $849 right now making it great value for anyone who wants to get involved with the Apple ecosystem without breaking the bank. Stylish and speedy, this is a laptop that will suit mostly everyone from students to people working from home or commuters. Here’s what you need to know before you hit the buy button. As always with such good deals, bear in mind that you could miss out if you wait too long.

Why you should buy the MacBook Air M2
One of the best laptop brands for reliability and being high quality, buying a MacBook Air is an investment that will last. While Windows-based laptops can lose their lustre over time, MacBooks tend to keep going for longer. While the MacBook Air M2 doesn’t have the latest Apple silicon -- the M3 -- it still offers fantastic performance. The M2 chip has an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU and this model is still considered to be the best MacBook for everyone. This particular model comes with 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage which is sufficient for all everyday tasks and saving documents easily.

Computing

How to set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft account

microsoft surface laptop 5 review 04

The best way to use Windows 11 is with a Microsoft account. You can sync different settings, use the Microsoft Store to download apps, and restore Windows by using backups from OneDrive. All of this is part of the reason why prompts to use a Microsoft account with Windows 11 will show up during initial setup of the operating system.

Computing

Alienware sale: Get up to $1,000 off gaming laptops and PCs

The Alienware x14 R2 gaming laptop on a desk.

There’s a huge sale on all things Alienware at Dell right now meaning some fantastic gaming laptop deals and gaming PC deals are yours to snap up. That includes some surprisingly affordable gaming rigs right up to some maxed out options too. If you’re looking to treat yourself to a new gaming setup, take a look at the full sale for yourself. There are over 20 different models in the sale so there are plenty of options. If you’re not sure where to begin, keep reading and we’ll guide you through our favorite picks.

What to shop for in the Dell gaming PC sale
Dell is one of the best gaming laptop brands so checking out the best gaming laptops it makes is the perfect starting point. One of the more inexpensive options is the which is down to $1,400 from $1,750. It has an AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX processor, 16GB of memory and 1TB of SSD storage. Even better, it has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card teamed up with a 16-inch QHD+ screen with 2560 x 1600 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and 3ms response time. It’s a perfect entry point to the gaming laptop world.