BT Cloud is closing

[Paul20]

Regarding BT Cloud Closing, it appears that this is part of the Digital strategy, reading some of the media out there BT Digital Chief Harmeen Mehta who was brought in 31/2 years ago appears to have dismantled and outsourced the companies servers so the cloud is probably one casualty of the strategy.   “We’re shutting 90% of our legacy systems and running a new model based on a platform approach” Harmeen has now left BT to continue her Digital Journey. 

Its not surprising that BT Cloud users are less than a couple of years ago, customers swap providers and those moved to EE loose the cloud on their new contracts so the reality is its been done by design as part of the digital journey

So closing old systems and moving to a new EE app to support BT customers I suspect somethings had to give  of these who are interested and give some insight to the changes and why we are loosing some of the traditional services.  

Hope the links help position why the closure is happening.

BT’s digital chief boasts 90% IT estate shrinkage

BT axes Digital chief Harmeen Mehta in top table revamp

[WarrenK]

Thanks.
Typical , comes in makes sweeping change and then leaves a landscape of damage for other people to sort out their mess.. (probably got paid a pretty penny too ££££££)

[bobdanbh]

I continued with BT at the last renewal as BT Cloud gave me offsite backup to add to my other backups. The closure of BT Cloud prompted me to look at the prices I was paying and realising there are better options.

I would never again buy an EE branded product after (pre-BT) they attempted to trash my credit rating because I refused to pay for a non existent service. Even when the Ombudsman ordered them to let me out of the contract and remove the adverse credit report I had to take legal action to get them to obey. Horrible, horrible company.

The articles referenced by Paul20 contain the most awful buckets of corporate/consultancy horse manure.  "Digital Journeys" - yuck! Is that the new name for getting pushed  out?

[Wooldric]

I too started my digital journey’ today.  Terminating my BT relationship and starting with a new provider.  Good luck all & goodbye!

[kencridland]

I have been following this discussion thread. I have contributed on it once previously. I noted the reference to BT's statement on its future -
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/04/bt-group-turning-ee-into-its-flagship-brand-for-uk-con...

It is both telling and inaccurate in there that BT said, "Nothing will change for our BT customers."

It is worth complaining. I have seen comments, often from 'experts' suggesting that complaints are useless, and defending BT's action. Thankfully I ignored those. I have complained and received money for the remaining 5 months of my contract. As line rental and BT Cloud were major reasons for my long stay with BT, and both have gone, BT have removed the reasons for me staying with them when my contract is up.

I used the BT Complaints Code - https://www.bt.com/bt-plc/assets/documents/about-bt/policy-and-regulation/our-governance-and-strateg...

On page 2 there is the email address and other contact details, along with the steps you need to take.

I used my 200Gb of BT Cloud as part of my back up system. It was effectively the last chance saloon if our house was destroyed. It was also a convenient way to back up things when away from home. Like many others on this forum, I felt BT were out of order.

Below is the complaint I emailed in. This resulted in a telephone conversation. I have now received a payment to cover the remainder of my contract amounting to about £2.49 a month, almost enough to buy 200Gb of alternative cloud storage.

--------------------------------------

This is the email I sent in -

FAO BT Complaints Department
I note your apologies in your email for the loss of BT Cloud, but I am exceedingly annoyed about the loss of BT Cloud, especially coming out of the blue during my contract with you. It is a major reason for me being with BT and I make good use of the 200GB of storage as a back up for photos and files, ensuring that I am up to date at least monthly.

When I continued with BT on my present contract, BT Cloud was an included product along with several others. I note that it was labelled as being of zero cost, but so were many other products such as voicemail, caller display, call diversion. There was no indication that any of them could be removed during the contract that I was bound into and paying for. It is bad enough that you can put up prices, even more than inflation, during the contract period, but this quite frankly takes the biscuit. It makes BT seem like a bunch of cowboy operators.

Below are my order details (I copied and saved them at the time). I look forward to hearing back from you. What I request are -
1) That I can continue with BT Cloud, at least for my contracted period.
OR if that is not possible -
2) That you provide me with the funds so that I can pay for 200Gb of cloud storage.

Yours etc.

(I then copied and pasted my order details from when I bought my present contract which showed a number of items all supposedly costing £0.00 and which included BT Cloud)

[Abbey999]

Thank you Ken for your help/info. and others that have responded to the BTCloud issue. My immediate concern was that I also could no longer access BTCloud in order to get stuff off it by the end of October. This was resolved quickly by one of the community team contacting the BT technical team (who then rang me to check that I now had access). Having said that, I am of course disappointed that BTCloud is closing. BTW - it was the first time that I had used the BT Community!

[kencridland]

Thanks Abbey, Pleased that it was useful. I am glad that you are managing to retrieve your stuff now. In my case, the Cloud has a copy of my laptop files, so there is nothing in the Cloud that I now need to download. I also have a copy of those files on my PC and and external hard drive. BT Community members have pointed out it is good practice to have say 3 backup systems to be on the safe side. Cloud storage is particularly useful if anything serious happened to our home, or if you want to back up while away from home. It is such a pity that BT have done what they have in the way that they have - it is not making them any friends.

[Abbey999]

That is exactly what I had decided to do! - ie an external hard drive and another hopefully more reliable cloud provider.  

[johnny1231]

I've tried twice now to download my photos and videos (there's a lot of it), using the BT Desktop app.

First, I'm unable to change the download destination within the app, which the guidance appears to say that I should be able to do.

Secondly, I can't select a whole folder without scrolling down the entire folder (which take a while) until the end, and then clicking 'Select All' - it won't 'select all' until I get to the bottom.

Most importantly, the download is obviously going to take a while (my wifi is very good, but I don't have an ethernet connection into my PC) - and the site locks me out after a short amount of time!

As far as I can see, I would have to select a small amount, download that, select another amount, download that...which is completely impractical.

I don't think that BT is making this particularly easy...

[johnny1231]

(Posted this as a question on its own, but as I am a first-time user of the Forum, I've just seen this thread, so thought I'd post here too.

'I've tried twice now to download my photos and videos (there's a lot of it), using the BT Desktop app.

First, I'm unable to change the download destination within the app, which the guidance appears to say that I should be able to do.

Secondly, I can't select a whole folder without scrolling down the entire folder (which take a while) until the end, and then clicking 'Select All' - it won't 'select all' until I get to the bottom.

Most importantly, the download is obviously going to take a while (my wifi is very good, but I don't have an ethernet connection into my PC) - and the site locks me out after a short amount of time!

As far as I can see, I would have to select a small amount, download that, select another amount, download that...which is completely impractical.

I don't think that BT is making this particularly easy...'