14 DAY TRIAL // The Ubuntu One file service has been officially discontinued and users are no longer able to access the website. Fortunately for them, a couple of solutions have been put in place to help people recover their data.
Ubuntu users were disappointed to see the Ubuntu One file service go away, mostly because it was already integrated into the system, providing a handy backup space, among other things. On the other hand, it wasn't the best solution around and the space provided was rather small, as compared with Dropbox for example.
Canonical understood that the company could not compete with the other major players, like Dropbox or Google Drive, and decided to put the resources and finances in other projects that have a better chance of making it.
If you happen to enter the Ubuntu One website you will see a notification that informs users of the Ubuntu One shutdown. If you actually log in, a couple of options will be displayed at the bottom of the page – one that offers the user the possibility to download the entire content they were storing in Ubuntu in the form of a zip file, or to use the Mover service.
“We are sorry to notify you that the Ubuntu One file services has been shut down. As always, your content belongs to you. If you have already uploaded any content you can simply download your files onto your PC or an external hard drive. You will have one month (until 31 July 2014) to collect all of your content. After that date, all remaining content will be deleted.”
“We've always been inspired by the support, feedback and enthusiasm of our users and want to thank you for the support you've shown for Ubuntu One. We hope that you'll continue to support us as together we bring a revolutionary experience to new devices,” now reads the official Ubuntu One website.
The Ubuntu servers are experiencing a high load right now and you might not be able to download the zip file with your contents. You can try Mover, which is a service that allows Ubuntu users to move the files from this service to others (all the big ones are supported) free of charge.
The Ubuntu One file service was used by a lot of people, but there were also a number of applications that integrated it in some form or another. It will be removed from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS installations in one of the updates and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS hasn't even shipped with this service integrated.