Microsoft made a November announcement that it would be reducing its unlimited OneDrive storage for Office 365 Home, Personal and University subscribers to 1TB early next year, while free users would see their storage reduced from 15GB to 5GB, and see their 15GB cameral roll bonus disappear too.
Microsoft’s decision was poorly received by OneDrive customers, who created an online petition called “give us back our storage” with over 70,000 votes. The backlash has prompted the company to apologize and introduce a new offer for OneDrive customers to keep their 15GB free storage and 15GB camera roll bonus.
Microsoft Group Program Manager Douglas Pearce (via The Verge):
In November we made a business decision to reduce storage limits for OneDrive. Since then, 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. […]
In addition, for our biggest fans who have been loyal advocates for OneDrive, we are adding a new offer that lets you keep your existing 15 GB of free storage when the changes happen next year. If you also have the 15 GB camera roll bonus, you’ll be able to keep that as well. From now until the end of January, you can sign up to keep your storage at the link below.
OneDrive users who wish to keep their 15GB of free storage and 15GB camera roll bonus will need to sign up here by January 31, 2016. Microsoft is also offering one year of Office 365 Personal with 1TB of storage space to any OneDrive user that is using more than 5GB of free space.
Microsoft had announced in November that it would be reducing the amount of storage allotted to both Office 365 and free OneDrive cloud storage users, as well as eliminating its “unlimited” option. The company says a small number of users abused the “unlimited” storage, and the changes were needed to “ensure that we can continue to deliver a collaborative, connected and intelligent service.”
