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Nextbit is shutting down its Smart Storage cloud service for the Robin phone

Nextbit is shutting down its Smart Storage cloud service for the Robin phone

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Photo: Nextbit

Nextbit, the company behind the Robin, a phone touted as never running out of space, is shutting down its cloud storage service. Smart Storage was a major feature of Nextbit OS that allowed the Robin to seamlessly expand local storage by syncing apps, photos, and other content to the cloud. Now, Nextbit says the Smart Storage service will shut down on March 1st — the latest milestone in the Robin’s drawn-out decline.

Nextbit emailed users with the news, saying that starting March 1st all Robin phone owners would be signed out of Smart Storage. To secure their data, they’ll either have to sync it to their phone, or head to Nextbit’s download tool at cloud.nextbit.com. This feature will be available until April 1st, after which Nextbit says all “personal data information and data that has been collected ... will be purged.”

The company has also updated an old pop-up on its website that previously had conflicting dates about the shutdown. The company has since confirmed to The Verge that users won’t be able to access data after April 1st. So if you’re a Robin user, be sure to back your data up before then.

The new pop-up
The new pop-up

The end of the Robin’s cloud storage services seems inevitable at this point. Nextbit was bought by gaming company Razer nearly a year ago. Last August, it shut down phone support for the Kickstarter-backed Robin, followed by the closure of all social media channels in November. At the same time, Nextbit staff said their attention was now focused on launching the Razer phone. Apart from this latest news, the company has been quiet ever since.

Update 10/01/17, 10:15am ET: Updated with confirmation of shut down date from Nextbit and added updated pop-up from the website.