Microsoft Is Going To Reduce Free OneDrive Storage Space In July.
Last year, Microsoft declared that because of the misuse of the system, they would be decreasing the amount of free OneDrive storage that they were giving out to customers. Free accounts that initially gave 15GB were said to reduce to 5GB, however, the backlash that resulted saw Microsoft compromise.
The company is sending out emails permitting customers who didn't opt-in to Microsoft's previous OneDrive offer that the reduction from 15GB to just 5GB of free space will occur on July 27. Microsoft had made the declaration in November last year claiming that says 5GB is sufficient for about 6,600 Office documents or 1,600 photos. However, after backlash from customers, the company made a U-turn and apologized to users for reducing OneDrive storage.
As cloud storage remains to get cheaper and cheaper for service providers, Microsoft has decided to remove much of the value from its own customer offering. It’s an aggravating and curious move for many users, but there is some good news to be had… kind of.
If we saw the earlier scope of Microsoft’s declaration, we know that there was a way for free users to keep their 15GB of OneDrive storage after the switch is made. All we had to do was visit a special page on Microsoft’s website and click one button. Note the past tense in that last sentence — unfortunately, we had to click that button by January 31st, 2015 in order to keep our 15GB.
If user missed out and didn’t get an opportunity to visit Microsoft’s site by the end of January, there’s nothing user can do. Well, that’s not entirely true. There are two things the user can do: pay for 50GB of OneDrive storage or switch to another cloud storage provider. The user has until July 27th to decide, as Microsoft has established that’s the date these changes will produce results.
"We want to let you know about some upcoming changes to OneDrive. On 27/07/2016, the amount of storage that comes with OneDrive will change from 15GB to 5GB. We are also discontinuing the 15GB camera roll bonus," said the email.
The company also added that "we realize these are big changes to a service you rely on. We want to apologise for any inconvenience that they may cause you. We've made a difficult decision, but it's one that will let us sustainably operate OneDrive into the future."
This change by Microsoft might force some heavy users to pay for cloud storage, and probable, it may drive them towards rivals such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and others.
We are also discontinuing the 15GB camera roll bonus.
The actual date for the change isn’t going to be July 13 for everyone. Some users have reported receiving a message with July 27 as the date. This, Microsoft says, is because it is "rolling out the storage changes in different waves, this date varies for some customers".
Anyone who replaced to keep their 15GB of storage will have received a different message stating that "your account will not be affected by these changes".
Now Users for can try one month of Office 365 for which they get 1TB OneDrive free for a month for up to 5 users. Office 365 Personal with 1TB OneDrive costs Rs. 3,299 per year or Rs. 330 per month, while the Office 365 Home + 1TB OneDrive for up to 5 users is priced at Rs. 4,199 per year or Rs. 420 per month. Users can also upgrade their 5GB of free storage to 50GB by paying Rs. 123 per month.