Microsoft Dropping Unlimited OneDrive Storage

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If you are one of the people that actually take advantage of Microsoft's "unlimited" OneDrive storage, you might want to start thinking about making other plans. Thanks to Michael Ingram for the heads up.

  • We’re no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
  • 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
  • Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016.
 
that sucks, with how cheap storage is, you would think they would want to keep offering the same levels or increase them, not drop them to keep people using the service. Especially with onedrive having been tied into windows 8 and now windows 10 and them trying to get you to use that to store you files.

Given that my phone backs up to my Onedrive account and all my pictures go there, I am at 8.5GB right now. Guess time to start moving stuff off.
 
Should have read the article before commenting.

Since we started to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average. Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.

I can see that as a reason to drop the unlimited at the very least. 75TB of storage per user for a few people is a tad overboard.
 
Damn. That sucks. I have a lot of stuff stored there. I really like the integration of it within Windows...

I need to make sure I get a good backup. I do have Office 365 with the 1TB, though.
 
Should have read the article before commenting.



I can see that as a reason to drop the unlimited at the very least. 75TB of storage per user for a few people is a tad overboard.

Yea but in that same sentence the average usage is around 5gb. They could have easily dealt with those rare users individually.
 
Should have read the article before commenting.



I can see that as a reason to drop the unlimited at the very least. 75TB of storage per user for a few people is a tad overboard.

always some people that ruin good things no matter what it is.
 
I can see that as a reason to drop the unlimited at the very least. 75TB of storage per user for a few people is a tad overboard.

I don't see that as being the reason. They dropped the 100/200 GB plan is begin dropped, too. Everything is being lowered. If anything, it would have only affected the unlimited, but it's being lowered across the board...
 
Should have read the article before commenting.



I can see that as a reason to drop the unlimited at the very least. 75TB of storage per user for a few people is a tad overboard.
Eliminating the unlimited option makes a lot of sense, especially given that they have to back up people's data (thus, 50GB of user data requires at least 100GB space at Microsoft's end). Decreasing the space offered under the other options seems like it's going overboard. Going from 15GB to 5GB on the free side is probably going to be a real pain for many of their users, and it's not great for PR since Google Drive offers 15GB for free.
 
Wtf. I just synced all my docs and pics with one drive last week and I'm at 11gb. This sucks. Google drive here I come.
 
Should have read the article before commenting.

I can see that as a reason to drop the unlimited at the very least. 75TB of storage per user for a few people is a tad overboard.

The "One guy had 75TB on our unlimited service" part of their announcement is irrelevant and a red herring. All of today's outrage even on pro-Microsoft sites like Thurott and Neowin is that they dropped free accounts to 5GB with no further explanation.
 
The "One guy had 75TB on our unlimited service" part of their announcement is irrelevant and a red herring. All of today's outrage even on pro-Microsoft sites like Thurott and Neowin is that they dropped free accounts to 5GB with no further explanation.

5gb is useless to most people. I'd be better off with a flash drive.
 
The "One guy had 75TB on our unlimited service" part of their announcement is irrelevant and a red herring. All of today's outrage even on pro-Microsoft sites like Thurott and Neowin is that they dropped free accounts to 5GB with no further explanation.
The explanation for restricting the free accounts further seems obvious, though they obviously can't say it: Giving away Windows 10 is costing them a fair amount of short-term money but if they can get a lot of users to upgrade their at $2/month indefinitely they'll make scads of cash. While savvy users may opt for other services, there are plenty who will simply use what's already right there in front of them.
 
i had a free 200GB skydrive offer with my surface pro 2. it said offer is good for 2 years from purchase date, 200GB will be given for two years.

i try to put that code today and it said the promotion has ended. theres no where to put the code.

fuck off microsoft.
 
5gb is useless to most people. I'd be better off with a flash drive.

No kidding. It's a pretty crappy bait-and-switch, and you know it's bad when even the MS fanboys are in an uproar.

For a company whose CEO has declared "The new Microsoft is all about The Cloud", and he wants to "win back consumer confidence", they sure have a funny way of showing it.
 
disabled my auto-renew because of this. A few bad apples and the unlimited nature of the storage is gone, so the new MS is no different than all the other firms who boast unlimited this and that but cap things based on their own internal view of what is "normal" usage. If I pay for it and you advertise it as being unlimited then allow it to be so or don't advertise it as such.
 
The explanation for restricting the free accounts further seems obvious, though they obviously can't say it: Giving away Windows 10 is costing them a fair amount of short-term money but if they can get a lot of users to upgrade their at $2/month indefinitely they'll make scads of cash. While savvy users may opt for other services, there are plenty who will simply use what's already right there in front of them.

Interesting theory, and if it were true, why don't they just come out and say that, rather than this smokescreen B.S. about a "75TB" abuser. Nobody's buying it.

It's the equivalent of TMobile reducing everyone's data to 100MB a month because a few bad apples were abusing the unlimited data.

On the bright side, you really aren't missing much if you weren't already on OneDrive - the upload speed was among the worst in the industry. And the much-requested reintroduction of placeholder functionality was sure as shit never going to come back.
 
What's the point of offering "unlimited" of whatever if you can't support it? I hate it when companies advertise "unlimited" this or that but then go 180 and find ways to punish those who use the service as advertised.
 
No kidding. It's a pretty crappy bait-and-switch, and you know it's bad when even the MS fanboys are in an uproar.

For a company whose CEO has declared "The new Microsoft is all about The Cloud", and he wants to "win back consumer confidence", they sure have a funny way of showing it.

Yep. Nadella said mobile first, cloud first. This completely contradicts this. I don't even understand why they are cutting back the 100GB and 200GB options. Basically, subscribe to O365 for 1TB or get out.
 
What's the point of offering "unlimited" of whatever if you can't support it? I hate it when companies advertise "unlimited" this or that but then go 180 and find ways to punish those who use the service as advertised.

The majority of the subscribers should offset the few users who take full advantage of the service.
 
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Interesting theory, and if it were true, why don't they just come out and say that, rather than this smokescreen B.S. about a "75TB" abuser. Nobody's buying it.
I don't think it is a smokescreen, for the change to the unlimited plan. I mean, seriously, if you've got a thousand people storing (for example) 50GB or less compared to each person storing 50TB (and the ratio is probably greater than that), it's crazy to keep the unlimited plan in order to satisfy those rare users. I'm sure they ran the numbers before they made the decision.

It's the equivalent of TMobile reducing everyone's data to 100MB a month because a few bad apples were abusing the unlimited data.
Nope, not really. The analogy could only hold if the majority of users (on what I assume you propose would be an hypothetical unlimited plan) were using less than 100MB a month, which is extremely doubtful. You'd be closer if you compared it to a cell company reducing the unlimited plan to 10GB a month, a cap that would likely satisfy the vast majority of users.

Again, I agree that they're being foolish in reducing the free accounts because their competitors will make them look dumb by offering more storage for free. But I don't doubt their story at all with regard to the unlimited plan.
 
I don't think it is a smokescreen, for the change to the unlimited plan. I mean, seriously, if you've got a thousand people storing (for example) 50GB or less compared to each person storing 50TB (and the ratio is probably greater than that), it's crazy to keep the unlimited plan in order to satisfy those rare users. I'm sure they ran the numbers before they made the decision.

I'm pretty sure they are clearing the way for changing their 'Windows as service' lineup and not worried about losing or making money.
 
Icloud is 5gb free, amazon isn't free.

icloud 1TB=$10 monthly, 1GB max file size, limited up/down
onedrive is office 365+1TB=$10 monthly, 10GB max file size, unlimited up/down
amazon unlimited=$12 annually, 10GB max file size, unlimited up/down

icloud is pretty much the same but worse.
amazon is more and has been more.
 
So they lowered the 100gb for $1.99 plan (which was matched to Google's) to 50gb for $1.99. Quote the bargain!

There's competing and then there's not even trying. I'm assuming they're of the mindset that because OneDrive is integrated, they'll get a majority of users just from that who won't shop around.
 
It'd be really odd to as a like end user to need more than like 4GB of storage space anyhow. I think pretty much everything I care about in documents, photos, and music would fit into 4GB though I'd feel better with more like 8GB.

Anywho, whatever Microsoft. Cut back all you want. My stuff stays on my own computers and in like a thumb drive or two as backup. I really see no need to try to shove a whole buncha data up some stupid internet connection only to have to wait for it to be accessible and expose it to Microsoft's creeping around looking in my unpublished novels and pics of my kitty.
 
i had a free 200GB skydrive offer with my surface pro 2. it said offer is good for 2 years from purchase date, 200GB will be given for two years.

i try to put that code today and it said the promotion has ended. theres no where to put the code.

fuck off microsoft.

How old is your surface? Have you called them? Know any trial attorneys? There's gotta be a class action in there.
 
Icloud is 5gb free, amazon isn't free.

icloud 1TB=$10 monthly, 1GB max file size, limited up/down
onedrive is office 365+1TB=$10 monthly, 10GB max file size, unlimited up/down
amazon unlimited=$12 annually, 10GB max file size, unlimited up/down

icloud is pretty much the same but worse.
amazon is more and has been more.

Yeah, but with Amazon, you also get the video and audio as well as fast shipping. I'm generally not big on Prime for shipping, but if you use those other services, 8 bucks a month isn't bad.
 
It'd be really odd to as a like end user to need more than like 4GB of storage space anyhow. I think pretty much everything I care about in documents, photos, and music would fit into 4GB though I'd feel better with more like 8GB.

Anywho, whatever Microsoft. Cut back all you want. My stuff stays on my own computers and in like a thumb drive or two as backup. I really see no need to try to shove a whole buncha data up some stupid internet connection only to have to wait for it to be accessible and expose it to Microsoft's creeping around looking in my unpublished novels and pics of my kitty.

If you shoot raw images, a single day of pictures could easily be more than 5 GB. My Flash cards are 32gb
 
Damn. That sucks. I have a lot of stuff stored there. I really like the integration of it within Windows...

I need to make sure I get a good backup. I do have Office 365 with the 1TB, though.

Maybe look into buying your own NAS or building your own. Its like having your own personal cloud that you can have complete control over!
 
I'm not sure what everyone is bitching and moaning about... MS is not rolling back everyone's storage... there are some roll backs and changes but in some cases things will stay the same... If you have a windows phone and were given say 10 -15gb of data backup storage for your phone that stays the same... if you have loyalty storage that stays , if you have an old skydrive 15gb plan that stays and it you have all of the above then you get all of that combined...
MS screwed up , they should never had offered unlimited ...
my plan looks like this...
Your plan
<Free> 15 GB
Your additional storage
Referral bonus (0% achieved) 0 GB
<free>Loyalty bonus 10 GB
Office 365 subscription 1,024 GB
<free> Camera roll bonus 15 GB
1,064 GB total Current plan
 
Wrong wrong wrong
I'm not sure what everyone is bitching and moaning about... MS is not rolling back everyone's storage... there are some roll backs and changes but in some cases things will stay the same... If you have a windows phone and were given say 10 -15gb of data backup storage for your phone that stays the same... if you have loyalty storage that stays , if you have an old skydrive 15gb plan that stays and it you have all of the above then you get all of that combined...
MS screwed up , they should never had offered unlimited ...
my plan looks like this...
Your plan
<Free> 15 GB
Your additional storage
Referral bonus (0% achieved) 0 GB
<free>Loyalty bonus 10 GB

Office 365 subscription 1,024 GB
<free> Camera roll bonus 15 GB
1,064 GB total Current plan
ugg half of my stuff did not paste through leaving half here and half not here... :{ DD'oh! sheesh . So ignore my earlier post :|
 
It does suck for those folks that were burning through terabytes of storage on an unlimited plan or for those maxing out their free storage. However, the hardship for the latter group maybe offset by a free year of Office365 that includes a terabyte of storage. The blog posts states:

"If you are using more than 5 GB of free storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes go into effect in early 2016. In addition, you can redeem a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage."
 
lame, had 30gb free and loved the service, any alternatives? going to try the unlimited pics+5gb amazon offers prime users for free
 
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