A number of MacRumors readers received an email from Apple today stating that their 50GB iCloud storage plan subscription has been "discontinued" and will no longer automatically renew. Several users on Reddit and Twitter have also reported receiving the email, which may have been sent mistakenly.
Relatedly, some iCloud storage plans were unavailable for purchase on iOS and macOS Sierra. When we checked the "Upgrade iCloud Storage" menu on an iPhone, both the 50GB and 200GB tiers were no longer listed. Later, the 1TB tier disappeared as well. On another iPhone, the menu wouldn't load at all.
Apple has not announced any changes to its iCloud storage plans, and it has not recently updated its iCloud storage plans and pricing support document, so this was likely simply a server-related issue on Apple's backend. Apple's System Status page does not reflect any ongoing iCloud-related issues.
Apple has not indicated why the "discontinued" emails were sent, but all four of the 50GB, 200GB, 1TB, and 2TB tiers appear to be available for purchase again for most users. We'll update this article if we hear anything else, particularly if Apple does have surprise changes to its iCloud storage plans in the works.
Top Rated Comments
Current:
* 50GB @ $0.99/month ($0.24 per GB)
* 200GB @ $2.99/month ($0.18 per GB)
* 1TB @ $9.99/month ($0.12 per GB)
* 2TB @ $19.99/month ($0.12 per GB)
My wish is $0.06 per GB across the board:
* 200GB @ $0.99/month ($0.06 per GB)
* 1TB @ $4.99/month ($0.06 per GB)
* 2TB @ $9.99/month ($0.06 per GB)
Better yet, offer flexible $0.99/month per 200GB used, with family sharing.
In case anyone's wondering, Dropbox is $0.10 per GB and Google Drive varies between $0.20 and $0.10 per GB. And neither offer flexible pay-as-you-use pricing, nor family sharing.
Here's why: By ensuring people have to pay $1 a month to use more than 5GB, they are making sure only those who are actively using their iCloud storage will be taking up more than 5GB of space.
Think about it: They give out 50GB free, and you have Joe Schmoe sign up, upload his 40GB photo collection, then switch to Android a year later and never use iCloud again. Now Apple has 40GB of data that'll stick around on their servers forever since the 50GB tier is free.
By charging $1 a month, Apple will recover the space when Joe stops paying for it. It's an easy way to ensure long gone users don't take up many petabytes of space. $1 a month is something pretty much anyone can pay, but most people will stop paying it if they're not using it.
It's a similar reason big cities charge for street parking; it's not so much about making money but about controlling usage of a limited resource.