MediaFire's new Android app comes with 50 GB of free storage

MediaFire, a cloud storage service that's less stingy with free space than some of its competitors, is now available for Android.

Just like its desktop counterpart and iOS apps, MediaFire for Android comes with 50 GB of free storage. It lets you upload files using the built-in file browser or using a gallery view for photos and videos. Users can send files to other apps, view certain types of files directly within the app, and get links to their files for sharing with other users. There's also a built-in camera for taking photos and videos and uploading them directly.

Beware of limitations

Keep in mind, though, that MediaFire does have some limitations that other storage services don't. For free accounts, there's a 200 MB limit on file sizes, and the service is ad-supported. (A “Personal” plan with 1 GB size limits, plus several other benefits and no ads costs $1.50 per month.)

Also, unlike Dropbox and SugarSync, MediaFire doesn't have a way to automatically upload new photos from your phone's camera. The app doesn't offer a way to upload multiple files at once, either, so sending all the photos on your phone to the cloud can be tedious. The best way would be to transfer them to a PC, then upload them all at once using MediaFire's desktop website.

Users will also need to be mindful of MediaFire's content retention policy. If you're an “inactive” user, which means that you haven't logged in to the service or had anyone view or download a file for some time, MediaFire may threaten to remove your files. According to the company's policy, most users get a 300- to 700-day grace period for inactivity, and users will get two notification e-mails over a five-day period when this is about to happen. It shouldn't be a problem if you're using the app once in a while, but it's not ideal for stashing files away and forgetting about them.

Although it's not the most full-featured cloud storage app, that 50 GB storage limit offered by MediaFire is pretty generous compared with other services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. MediaFire's Android app could be useful if you want to have a lot of photos or videos handy, but don't want those files to hog all the storage space on your phone.

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