Apple Loans Devs 50GB of Free iCloud Storage to Test New Features

Apple made several iCloud-related announcements during Monday’s WWDC keynote, introducing the ability to expand user control of document syncing with iCloud Drive, and sync massive image libraries with iCloud Photo Library. While the public has to wait until the fall to get their hands on these new features, an army of developers has access right now, and Apple wants to make sure they have the resources to test the features to their limits.

The company announced late Monday that registered developers can get 50GB of additional iCloud storage for free for the next five months, with the hope that developers will use the storage to put the new iCloud features through their paces. The offer is limited to current members of the iOS or Mac development programs, and eligible developers need only to log in to developer.icloud.com to activate the extra storage.

One issue that we’ve heard from developers, however, is that you must apply the extra storage to the Apple ID with which you registered your developer account. That means that developers who maintain separate iCloud accounts won’t be able to add the extra storage to their primary account, and will have to copy data to their developer iCloud account if they want to test the new features.

Apple offers 5GB of iCloud storage to all users for free, but with all of the new features slated for release this fall, it’s likely that most users looking to take advantage of things like iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library will easily exceed the 5GB limit. Apple currently offers three paid tiers of iCloud storage — 10GB for $20 per year, 20GB for $40, and 50GB for $100 — and it’s unclear if the company will increase the amount of free storage, or introduce additional paid tiers, once OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 launch.

The free storage offer expires on November 1, 2014, at which time all accounts will revert to their previous storage allotment.