As admittedlyĀ heavy Amazon Prime users, we can’tĀ believe we didn’t know about the free access all Prime members have toĀ Amazon Cloud Drive. And we can’t believe how many other in-the-know friends weren’t aware either. (Hey, Prime isn’t just for free shipping and watching Transparent after the kids are asleep.)
Turns out you canĀ securely backup and store all your data,Ā and auto-upload endless amounts of new stuff, like all those photos — and movies, videos, music, and files too. In fact,Ā Prime Photos gives you unlimited photo storage in a beautiful interface.
As in, no limits. Ā Free.
– Don’t miss a fantastic giveaway for 7 Cool Mom TechĀ readers below! –Ā
We were so impressed, that we jumped at the chance toĀ partner with Amazon Cloud Drive to get the word outĀ to other bloggers, publishers, editors, who we know take a ton of photos themselves. So this past weekend, we hosted some ofĀ our favorite New York City areaĀ parentsĀ and grandparents, Ā for a fun pre-Father’s Day brunch we called The Kids Stay in the Picture.
GuestsĀ got the scoop on how to use Amazon Cloud Drive, then put it to use with digital copies of theirĀ own gorgeous family portraits taken by Brooklyn-based photographer Tory WilliamsĀ who…well, wow.
There’s a reason we recommended a family portrait session as a great last minute Father’s Day gift after seeing her fantastic work.
But there was plenty for the kids to do too.Ā While the parents schmoozed and enjoyed mimosas (or two), the kids got to color their own printable Father’s Day cards and make DIY LEGOĀ photo frames complete with photos printed using the Polaroid Zip printer. Because eh, we still like a few old fashioned pics in with all the digital ones.
And of course there were great goodie bags.Ā (And we’re giving some away to you! Scroll down for all the details.)
And let’s not forget the power of a photo booth. Is there a kid out there who can resistĀ any opportunity to put on silly glasses in front of an iPad camera?
We use the Simple Booth Event Edition app which we highly recommend if you’ve got a party or event. It even lets youĀ email your photo right there and then. And uh, Liz may have found 87 of those emails in her inbox after the event thanks to her kids.
Not exaggerating.
But it was really Tory’s portrait sessions that made the event so special. In fact, we got lots of pro tips that we’ll be sharing with you soon.
When it came to learning about the Amazon Cloud Drive, we had the most awesomeĀ team talk to each of our guests about how it works, and how handy it really is to have this service for free if you’re a Prime member — especially if you take tons and tons of photos like we do.
Just download theĀ Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app on Android or iOS devices, log on from your computer or tablet,Ā andĀ you can safely store and access all your photos and personal videos across devices. Isn’t the nav beautiful? And fast, seriously.
Amazon Prime Members get unlimited photo storage, plus 5GB of additional storage space for your videos, movies, music, and files.
If you’ve got even more than that, like lots of videos, definitely try a free three-month trial of the unlimited storage plans. After that, you can get the Unlimited Everything Plan for about $5 a month ($59.99/year). And if you don’t have a Prime membership,Ā the same Unlimited Photos Plan is just $1 a month with an annual membership, and frees up all thatĀ storage space on your phone, camera,Ā tablets, and PCs.
(We all sure have a lot of devices these days!)
But maybe the most special part of all was seeing so many families getting their very first family portraits taken.Ā Especially our own Stephanie Mayers, who hadĀ her first ever family-of-four portrait.
Sniff.
EXTRA COOL: WIN IT!
We’ve got 7Ā amazing prizes forĀ some luckyĀ Cool Mom Tech readers!
We’re giving away TWOĀ awesome gift bags — one for men, one for women — full of cool Amazon Beauty goodies, plusĀ an Amazon Fire TV stick and Fuji Instax 8 camera.
And then FIVEĀ runners up will get our party goody bag with fun stuff for the kids, a cool tote, a gift card and more, along with an Amazon Fire TV stick and Fuji Instax 8 camera.
TO ENTER:
Just leave a comment here telling us how many photos you have on your phone or tablet right now this very minute. Be honest!
Leave the comment by Saturday, June 20 at midnight PDT. We’ll draw 7 winners at random. One entry per household please, 18+, US only, void where prohibited. Please see our contest rules for fullĀ requisite legal info. Good luck!
CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!
A huge thanks to the fantastic folks atĀ Amazon Cloud DriveĀ for partnering with us for this awesome event. And a special thanks to Tatt.ly and Pinhole Press who added fabulous goodies to our goody bags!
Photos Ā© Cool Mom Tech byĀ Aaron Adler Photography
Probably like 500 pictures!
currently rockin’ 242 pics.
I’ve got 2208. Yeesh! I love Amazon Prime and these great perks they keep offering. Thanks for telling me about it!
642!!!!
113 (all taken today!)
1632
3,547 – oops
I’ve got 5 photos on my phone. I always send them to the cloud right away because I’d be heartbroken if I lost them.
108, but I’m really good about storing them off my phone. š
82 because I store them on the Amazon app !!
Very cool! I have 343 pics!
2092
216!
I have 1123 pictures on my phone
346
2742 š®
456!
552 (+ 50 videos)!
5109! Hello digital hoarder!
576 in All Photos!
462
479
1000+
316
864!!
1729
2,846 {hangs head in shame}
2301. But only because I’m bad about deleting photos, even though they’re backed up on my Amazon Cloud storage!
1,262…
1.275…
2,894……YIKES!!!!
2…just uploaded all the photos onto my computer. Wish I learned of this sooner! But now, I can upload from my computer! Thank you!
4058
1085
1,780.
624
835
2,649!
343!
824
76. Since, like, three days ago.
Amazingly only 145, only because I just cleaned it out!
129 (i just transferred over 1,000 2 days ago over to my computer)
781 and counting…
… 1,631 plus 1,000 on photo stream. I DO download to my computer monthly. That bad. I blame IG. Got a screenshot to prove. O:)
125. Just got a new phone recently so I expect that number to jump quickly!
677 plus my external sd card has 1049. Having a new baby takes up a lot of phone storage lol. Great prize!!
1,387
1,751a I got a new phone in November- there are more in the cloud from when I backed up my phone- I have no idea how to retrieve them!
3318. Holy canole.
I have 2034 pictures on my phone!
Eek! I have 6,843 pictures. Whoops. But lots of them are of my 6th grade class…
Uh. 861 photos on my phone right now. And thanks for this post!
Currently 1818.
3,112 on my phone. They are currently backed up to iCloud because I had no idea about this being part of my Amazon Prime membership!
Camera roll on my iphone has 3232 images and 60+ videos …and counting
2,642!
1,969 photos. Super excited to try this. I’m a prime member and had no idea this existed. Thanks for sharing!
Is it bad I don’t know how to tell how many hundreds of photos I have on my iPhone? š
Love you guys! Right now I have 734 photos on my phone and I’ve only had it three months! Love taking pictures and capturing memories š
1828. Seriously
441 pics (mostly of my little bitties) š
80 photos, 20 videos, for a total of 2.1GB being used on my iPhone. I need that space back!
926, but I’ve been at over 2,000 before š
2,779 photos
87 videos
671 on my camera roll! Yikes!!
I have 2,132!
i only have 53 right now because I spent TWO HOURS backing up and deleting my photo stream today. Help! š
5,553 (!) photos and videos in my iPhone camera roll right now. I clearly should start using Amazon Cloud, especially since I’m already a Prime member
5,553 (!) photos and videos in my iPhone camera roll right now. I clearly should start using Amazon Cloud, especially since Iām already a Prime member.
4296, I can’t wait to check out the Amazon cloud!
423. good tip; thanks for sharing!
After a good picture cleansing last week…1162 photos left on my phone!
#mytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor #picturehungergames
226 photos. Thanks for the info!!
surprisingly only 50….not sure when I got so organized….
715
On this device, 407. 77 videos. Not bad but add all devices and….
hundreds! Looks like, maybe 287?
637 pics + 32 videos and out of storage space
64 – just transferred a bunch to my computer!
724
530 pics right now…on my phone…not sure about the iPads :-/ this is such a cool giveaway! Thanks!
1429 photos 159 videos on phone; the iPad has at least twice that much! We are constantly running out of storage and trying to transfer pics and vids off of devices or buy more storage! $$$$
We can’t tell you how many times our devices have shutdown on us because storage has been full!
We have been Amazon Prime members for a while and had no idea! Thank you!!!! Can’t wait to get this app on all our devices:)
I only have 169 pics & 5 videos right now bc I just upgraded my phone &!had to clean it all up!
I have about 200
This is great news, since I have Amazon prime and had no idea about this services. Thanks! I have 243 photos on my phone and about 15,000 on Flickr!!
3,953 – and I don’t use it that often. Yeesh.
Is the Amazon photo app only for iOS 8? Running an iPhone 4 and iPad mini over here, both trapped in iOS 7 land…
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Eds: Compatibility: Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5 and iPhone 6.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-photos-cloud-drive/id621574163?mt=8
(Also avail for Android)
823
I have 1697 pics right now. My iPhone is full!
299. Just cleared my phone recently. Amazon Drive sounds like just what I need!
1,666! Yikes!
1064 pics right now.
367!
623 , more than I thought
Photos – 1,322
But I also have WhatsApp and between photos sent/received, 2,541
So in total, on my phone, almost 4,000. Yikes!
I have 361!
I currently use amazon primes’ cloud to store my pics, but am afraid they will disappear into space! So I haven’t really truested it yet & continue to store them on my laptop & phone as well! I currently have 738 pics & 5 videos on my iPhone !
Hi! I have 81 pictures on my phone. Thanks!
658! (And I just did a back up clean up a couple weeks ago )
5898!! I just got this phone in november! I have two babies; that’s all I have to say
435
I have 643 pictures in my phone right now
I have over 700 photos on my phone and 14 videos. Yikes, need to synch and clean up…
8,374!!! And 185 videos – yikes, I win the dubious honor of the most photos so far. Clearly I need to look into this, yikes!
I currently have 536 photos on my devices
I keep getting the storage low message, so I have to do a phone dump every week. Right now I have about 150 photos and 6 videos on my phone; 20 videos on my iPad.
I have 1,128 pictures right now!!
364
I just went through and backed up and bunch of pictures and deleted a lot of them. Right now there’s under 300. Before I had over 650.
3739
754 on my tablet, tons on my phone. Lol
3,498 and that is just the last few months…. Clearly, I need help…
Right now, 342, but only because I’ve been trying to get them off the phone lately!
I’m at 2672 and counting.
901!!!
4!
—
We bow down to you Amelia! -Eds
I recently uploaded a ton to my iMac, so I’m at 111 right now.
635 moment captures on my phone at the moment!
3,111
1784!
343!
908. I clean it out very often.
But my new Amazon Cloud Service is holding over 2500 right now!
Mitch
—
Go Mitch!
I’ve got 3,083 – I need some space! š
I have 589 more than I thought eek
2,962. Time to upload some pics!
417–
157 thanks to a recent backup!
251
965!!! And I upload some to Dropbox already but don’t have enough space.
1325!
1124
1,169 … I may have a problem.
3 – my husband just took off my photos – stored them on our external hard drive – so I could have room to start snapping photos again.
1377 yeesh
962!
979 and that;s just my phone.