Many people call me because they are getting "out of storage" messages, and yet, they tell me, they paid for more storage. Because "storage" is such a vague term, there is a lot of confusion about the different types of storage for each type of system, what is built in, what can be added, and what needs to be paid for.

Most devices make use of three types of storage:

On device/Internal storage - This is the physical storage that is built in to your computer, phone, or tablet, generally measured in gigabytes (GB). On a computer, it is usually called the hard drive, and current common capacities are 500GB or 1TB for spinning drives, or 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB for solid state drives. On a mobile device, it is called storage, and comes in multiples of 8GB, with the current minimum being 16GB, and then 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and maxing out at 512GB. Don't confuse storage with RAM, which is the temporary memory a device uses to hold the information it is currently processing. Information in internal storage is permanently on the device, until you purposely delete it.

Think of internal storage as the trunk space in your car. It is finite, and once you fill it up you have few options to add more. Some devices, like most Windows laptops and desktops, have upgradable components. That means that if you fill up your internal hard drive, a technician like me can disassemble your computer and replace the original drive with one with a larger capacity. Some devices, like Android Phones and tablets, iPhones, iPads, and most recent Apple computers, cannot be upgraded to add more internal storage. That means that if you fill up your internal storage drive, you will have to remove some of the data on it if you need more space.

External storage - To continue our car analogy, this would be the equivalent of a trailer, or a roof carrier, that can be attached to your device as needed, to provide additional storage. Typical external storage devices are thumb drives, portable hard drives, or SD cards, like the kind you have in your camera. All computers are capable of attaching an external drive via USB. Some Android phones and tablets have a special slot for a MicroSD card to provide additional storage. No Apple iPhones or iPads have the capability to add additional physical storage - the amount of internal storage is all you will ever have.

External storage is very handy to use for backup, and can be used to offload files you don't access frequently, but it can be unwieldy to use a portable hard drive with a laptop that travels, so it's a better solution for desktop computers. Additionally, the SD cards that can be inserted into some Android phones and tablets are useful for keeping personal data, like photos, but often cannot be used to store applications.

Cloud Storage - This is storage at someone else's site, that you access through the internet - basically you are renting space on someone else's computer. Back to our car analogy, you have filled up your trunk, and you don't want to lug around a trailer every time you drive, so you rent a storage unit nearby. iCloud, OneDrive, and Google Drive are all cloud storage options. I recently wrote an article about the different plans available, but the general idea is that you pay them a few dollars a month, and for that you can keep your documents and pictures in the cloud.

Different providers have different approaches, but every cloud based storage provider offers some way to physically remove the files from your device, and allow seamless access to them as long as you are connected to the internet. Apple's "optimize" settings for photos, for example, will remove the full sized photos from your device and put them into iCloud. What you see on your device are small thumbnail sized versions of your full sized photos.

Most of you use some combination of on-board, external, and Cloud storage, but it can be confusing to know where your data actually is, how much storage you currently have and use, and what you should actually be paying for. It's important to understand all this when you are purchasing a new device, so you don't buy one without enough on-board storage, and when you are paying for cloud solutions, so you don't overpay, or cancel the plan that has all your data on it. If you'd like me to review how and where your data is currently being stored, and make recommendations on your best approach, feel free to schedule a home visit!