If you, like me, are using a Synology NAS that is configured to backup or sync data to an Amazon Drive account, I’ve got some bad news. Amazon has decided to discontinue access to Amazon Drive by Synology Cloud Sync and Synology Hyper Backup apps running on Synology network attatched storage devices starting on November 1st, 2020.
Amazon has sent out the above email outlining the upcoming change. Based on the suggestions in the email, it seems as though using Amazon’s own mobile and desktop apps, as well as the Amazon Drive website, will be the only ways to get files on or off of Amazon Drive after the November cutoff.
Amazon Drive was once a very attractive service to many, including myself, for cloud storage because it used to offer unlimited storage for a very reasonable price of $59.99 per year. Amazon discontinued the unlimited storage option 3 years ago and replaced it with tiered plans that were priced more in line with competing cloud storage services. Amazon does, however, still offer unlimited full-resolution photo storage for free for all Prime members. That free unlimited photo storage paired with a Synology NAS made for a great low-cost local+offsite photo backup solution for many people.
The backup/sync software running on a Synology NAS made it very easy to dump large amounts of photos to Amazon Drive, which might be why Amazon is cutting off API access to Synology. Synology NAS owners who backup to Amazon Drive will need to now use Amazon’s desktop Drive app for syncing up to the cloud. Existing data on Amazon Drive that was synced or backed up using a Synology NAS will remain intact in the cloud, but your Synology NAS will no longer be able to access or update that data.
If you don’t want to use Amazon’s desktop software, Synology is offering Amazon Drive users free access to their C2 Cloud Backup service until March 31, 2021 to ease the transition. You must sign up for the offer by January 31, 2021 to take advantage of the free storage. Synology has also published a help page to guide customers on moving off of Amazon Drive.
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Yikes! I have been using this as well, I hope this isn’t the first step in a phased shutdown of Amazon Drive all together. My current setup is so much easier than the old days of plugging/unplugging USB drives! On a side note, while unlimited photo storage is a nice Prime perk the video storage allowed is abysmal, especially in HD, 2-3 vids and your done unless you want to $$$!
A few comments I’ve read say that Amazon started telling developers that they’ll be cutting off access to 3rd parties as far back as 2018. Another comment said that Synology’s access has been a hack/workaround for some time. If those are true, which I don’t know if they are, it would seem that Amazon isn’t planning to shut the service down, but just keep it 1st-party only.
I just received an email from Amazon proper that my access (personal Synology NAS using cloud-sync backing up photos only to my prime account Amazon drive) will have access discontinued Nov 1st of this year. To be very blunt, the fact that I’d been using that as off-site backup for images was the ONLY true sticking point for me that has kept me a Prime member for going on 2 years of thinking about leaving. Now I’m gone. I don’t use any other AWS services these days and frankly I’m sick and tired of this company.
My use case wasn’t just about unlimited photo storage. Having the Synology send my photos directly to Amazon’s ecosystem was an easy way to have them show up on all the screensavers on my Echos and Fire Sticks.
Our family phones automatically backup all photos to the Synology rather than Google. I can edit/manipulate/utilize the photos on the NAS and then have them sent to Amazon automagically. So much for simplicity.
Since Amazon isn’t suspending the unlimited photo storage, I guess I’ll just have to put together a Docker based hack on the Syno and have that VM run Amazon’s photo widget. What an unnecessary PITA.
Interested in the docker idea.
I need to spend some cycles on it. At a high-level, I’m looking at an Android emulator that would simply run the Amazon Photos app and use my photo folder as the “local storage” of photos.
Would be awesome if you could share the docker image if you get it working.
I tried setting up a full VM with Android x86 to do something similar, but couldn’t get it to work (vga settings/gui issues).
Someone on reddit has the concept working through a Windows 10 VM + the cloud drive app, but a docker solution would be much more lightweight…
Docker wine??
https://hub.docker.com/r/scottyhardy/docker-wine/
I have no clue how to implement something like this. :)
Amazon Drive and Amazon Photos are not Wine compatible (…yet)
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=18708
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=19837
Is the Amazon Glacier service also affected by this?
No, it does not seem to be affected.
It looks like DropBox Might be the next best option for CloudSync? I use the NAS like a home server for everything from Videos to files… and like having the offsite backup (just to be safe)… Kinda Stinks I loose the option with Amazon!
Just hyperbackup to a local usb hard disk and rclone that folder to your unlimited amazon drive using encryption on a schedule in the DSM. I haven’t done this specifically but it should work.
Rclone has been disabled for amazon drive.
I signed up to Backblaze B2 as a replacement for Amazon Drive. It’s supported by Cloud Sync. This is going to cut my storage costs by more than half too.
So this means goodbye Amazon for me… I am not going to spend time trying to circumvent this. Company just lost a customer. I am going to backblaze as well.
As of November 12th, my photos are still syncing with Cloud Sync. (Documents stopped syncing sometime in the last couple of weeks).