Microsoft has announced reductions in the amount of OneDrive cloud storage available to both Office 365 and free users for a more “collaborative, connected and intelligent service.”
In a new post on the official OneDrive blog, Microsoft noted that, since it introduced unlimited storage for Office 365 consumer subscribers last year, “a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings”, which sometimes “exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average.”
Citing a desire to discourage “extreme backup scenarios” and “remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences”, the Redmond firm revealed that unlimited storage has been immediately removed for Office 365 Home, Personal and University subscribers. These users will be limited to 1TB, while free users will, from early 2016, have access to up to 5GB of storage – down from the current maximum of 15GB.
Users storing more than the new permitted maximum will be notified and given time to adapt to the changes. These changes, the OneDrive Team explained, “will allow us to continue to innovate and make OneDrive the best option for people who want to be productive and do more.
