No, it’s not “April’s Fools Day”, Microsoft is making changes on its OneDrive storage cloud storage offerings that you probably are not going to like. First and foremost, the company is axing the unlimited OneDrive storage for Office 365 Home, Personal, and University plans.
The company says that it has seen one too many users using the unlimited cloud storage to store many PC backups, home videos, DVD Recordings, and even entire movie collections. “This exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average.” As such, the unlimited plan will no longer be available and it’s replacing it with a 1TB option.
If you think that was the worst part, the company is also reducing the free tier of OneDrive cloud storage from 15GB to 5GB. The 100GB and 200GB plans are also no longer available, as Microsoft will be replacing the option with a 50GB plan that will cost $1,99 per month.
The new change is not only for newcomers but for current customers too.
Here’s how things are going to work
- Office 365 subscribers with more than 1TB of storage will be given a year to move their files.
- If you don’t like the new services plans of your Office 365 subscription, Microsoft will offer a pro-rated refund.
- Current and new users will only get 5GB of free OneDrive storage. If you’re already in the 15GB plan, it will decrease to 5GB, when Microsoft rolls out the new changes in early 2016.
- The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued.
- Current customers only using OneDrive storage plans of 100 or 200 GB are not affected by these changes.
- The storage you have as part of other promotions is not affected by this change.
Here’s what happens if you go over the quota
If you have a free OneDrive plan and will be over your storage quota as a result of these changes:
- You will be notified and will have 90 days’ notice to take action before your account will become read-only.
- If you are over quota after the 90 days, you will still have access to your files for 9 months. You can view and download them. However, you will not be able to add new content.
- If after 9 months and you are still over quota, your account will be locked. That means that you will not be able to access the content in your OneDrive until you take action.
- If after 1 year you fail to take action, your content may be deleted.
If you are an Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscriber with unlimited storage:
- If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and have stored in excess of 1 TB, you will be notified of this change and will be able to keep your increased storage for at least 12 months starting on November 2, 2015.
- After that period, your account will become read-only, but you will still have access to your files for at least 6 months. You can view and download your files, but will not be able to add new files.
- If you are still over quota after that time, your account will be locked. That means that you will not be able to access the content in your OneDrive until you take action.
- If after 1 year you fail to take action, your content may be deleted.
So, there you go folks, Microsoft is really changing its way of doing business with OneDrive. While the one terabyte plan should be more than enough space for many users, the unlimited offering was compelling for many customers and helped Microsoft to sell more. Now, users might think twice before choosing OneDrive over Dropbox and Google Drive.
The plan that got hurt the most is perhaps the free tier, as the company is reducing three times its size from 15GB to 5GB, and customers will no longer have Camera Roll bonus storage. Before the 15GB offering was introduced, Microsoft used to offer 7GB of free storage.
What do you think about the reduction changes Microsoft is implementing with OneDrive? Let us know in the comments below.
Source Microsoft
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].