Samsung kills Gallery Sync and Drive support in favor of OneDrive

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Samsung dropped some of its cloud features and decided to rely on OneDrive instead.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Microsoft Apps
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Microsoft Apps (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Samsung is ending support for Gallery Sync and Drive storage.
  • Data from these sources can be migrated to OneDrive or downloaded for some time.
  • The termination of the features will occur over a phased rollout with dates varying based on your region.

Samsung's Gallery Sync and Drive storage for My Files will no longer be supported by Samsung Cloud (via Neowin). Anyone with a premium storage subscription plan will have it canceled beginning April 1, 2021, and might receive a refund. Samsung isn't leaving its customers without cloud storage options, however, as the same features will soon be supported by Microsoft OneDrive rather than Samsung Cloud.

The transition from Samsung Cloud to OneDrive will happen gradually. Samsung breaks down the shutdown process on a support page. The shutdown process will occur in two groups, separated depending on the country that you first signed up for a Samsung account from.

Samsung first rolled out gallery integration with OneDrive toward the end of last year. The feature natively integrates the photo gallery of supported Samsung phones with OneDrive.

If you have data within Gallery Sync or Drive, you can save it in a couple of ways. You can either migrate it over to OneDrive or download the data to a mobile device or PC. Samsung notes that if you migrate or download your data that the cloud versions of the content may be deleted before the official end date.

The rollout is relatively complex, with two groups being spread across three different phases of termination. The first phase of the shutdown stops new registrations for these deprecated services. The next phase discontinues the use of existing Gallery Sync and Drive registrations and the end of OneDrive migration support. The final phase sees the end of data download support. The exact dates of each of these phases depends on your region.

Samsung's support page has a tool to determine which group you are in and outlines all of the relevant dates for the phased shutdown.

While Gallery Sync and Drive support is ending, you will still be able to back up and sync contacts, calendars, and notes to Samsung Cloud.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He's covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean's journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_.