GoKawiilThose who've been Samsung Galaxy owners for long enough will no doubt have experienced a pop-up or prompt on their device encouraging users to back up their photos and videos to Microsoft OneDrive. Samsung sits in a unique position within the modern computing ecosystem. Its most popular devices run Google's Android operating system, but it also makes a healthy number of Windows PCs. It therefore has strong ties with both companies, but that integration with OneDrive is coming undone in the near future.
Within the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem, OneDrive backups through the Gallery app have functioned as a strong Google Photos alternative, perfect for those who are trying to avoid locking themselves into the Google ecosystem. There are other benefits as well. The Samsung Gallery app is full of thoughtful features which remain absent from Google Photos, and it pairs directly with the built-in camera app on Galaxy phones. Moreover, if you've also got a Windows 11 PC with OneDrive configured, you'll find your media synced neatly onto it.
But Samsung and Microsoft are pulling the plug on their cloud storage collaboration. At the close of September, integration between Samsung Gallery and Microsoft OneDrive will be fully deprecated. To its credit, Samsung has deployed a number of verbose on-device announcements ahead of the change, giving users plenty of time to find alternative backup solutions. Here's what will actually change on your Samsung device and OneDrive account, as well as what you can do to mitigate any headaches the change may cause.