Microsoft lets OneDrive users keep their free storage, but it’s opt-in until January 31st

Microsoft apologizes about the sudden changes on OneDrive and announces that will let fans keep their 15GB of free cloud storage and the 15GB bonus of camera roll storage. However, it's an opt-in process to keep your storage.  

Opt-in to keep your free OneDrive storage

Recently, Microsoft announced unexpected changes to its OneDrive cloud storage service. Those customers with unlimited cloud storage through Office 365 got reduced to only 1TB of storage, and customers using the free 15GB tier of the service got reduced to only 5GB. In addition, the company also axed the 15GB of “camera roll” of bonus storage for photo backup.

Obviously, the news didn’t sit well among OneDrive users to the point that at the OneDrive feedback site, a petition requesting Microsoft “Give us back our storage” received over 70,000 votes by the community, and today, Microsoft didn’t have other choice, but to apologize and respond accordingly.

“We’ve heard clearly from our Windows and OneDrive fans about the frustration and disappointment we have caused. We realize the announcement came across as blaming customers for using our product. For this, we are truly sorry and would like to apologize to the community.” Microsoft officials said.

Although, the company apologized to users, the sad news is that Microsoft is not changing its new business model for OneDrive, but there is some good news. Existing customers using the free storage tier will get to keep their 15GB and the 15GB bonus for camera roll, which makes up a total of 30GB of free storage.

However, there is a caveat, this won’t be an automatic thing, those customers interested will have to opt-in to keep their free OneDrive storage. The problem with this approach is that people who don’t become aware of the change will eventually lose most of their storage, and their accounts will get reduced to 5GB.

For customers who received unlimited OneDrive cloud storage through an Office 365 subscription, the available space will revert to 1TB, but these customers will be able to keep their storage for a “at least 12 months.” Microsoft also says that “for anyone unhappy with the decision to not offer unlimited storage, we will offer a full refund.”

How to keep your free storage in OneDrive

Remember that you have time from now until the end of January 2016 to opt-in and keep your 15GB + 15GB of free camera roll storage. If you want to keep your free storage, head over to this Microsoft page and click the “Keep your free storage” button.

Share the news so more people can keep their free storage!

Source OneDrive UserVoice

About the author

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 14 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 20 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.