Microsoft Reduces OneDrive Storage for Office 365 and Free Users, Eliminates Unlimited Option

[Piggie]

This was handled poorly. They shouldn't have punished the 99.9% of users because 0.01% abused the system. They should have thought of a way to prevent people from abusing the system rather than shut it down and make the pricing tier even more expensive per GB. I loved OneDrive even if the Mac sync client stunk and the Windows 10 OneDrive changes stunk.

Now that I think about it, OneDrive has been taking a lot of steps back rather than trying to lead the market. Maybe I should look into dropbox.

I agree 100% punish the abusers.
Unfortunately that's not how the real world works I'm sorry to say.

How long before flying drones are banned or heavily restricted for everyone due to some idiots flying them near airfields, over private property, near people's homes, over schools to perv on the children?

It's easier for those in power to just say........ "ok enough is enough, unless you get a permit, they are banned"
Or some such rule.

the minority of idiots always spoil things for the majority.

 

[RockSpider]

Purely because the service was sold as "unlimited". Seems everyone forgets what this word means.

I think they were thinking that people would put their work files, some photos, some videos, some movies some music you know everyday stuff that normal people would do. Not stream thousands of illegal BluRays into the cloud 24hrs a day.

 

[ds2000]

Think about it - How does 1 person or even a family accrue 75TB of data?

This was something nefarious going on with those accounts. And I'm betting the "UNLIMITED" that you agreed to says somewhere in the fine print - "Unlimited for Office 365 Files" or for "Personal Data" not the entirety of your neighborhoods PirateBay downloads archive.

The only way I can think is by having some serious 5k raw footage or a pro photographer who's been in the field for 10 years shooting RAW pics......

Makes no matter to me, I'm happy with my 365 subscription, Mac's are backed up to a QNAP NAS, my photo library and documents are backed up to OneDrive - as I've set all my families accounts up to do as well.

 

[Shirasaki]

I have office 365 so I'm not too impacted, but the camera roll was a good service from MS and it is a shame to see that go - I don't like how iCloud deletes photos from the cloud if you delete them on the phone and so onedrive photo backup is useful

I have Office 365 Enterprise but I still use OneDrive because of this same reason. I also don't like what iCloud does even those deleted photos are really no longer needed.

OneDrive for Business is also more private than any other form of storage since the encryption keys are in your possession, not Microsoft.

I don't think they send the encryption key to my device rather than storing it to the cloud.

(I wonder why the Safari spelling checker tries to replace Bluray with Blurry. Apple doesn't seem to like Bluray).

Perhaps. Apple has eliminated optical drive already, so.

So that means if I upload more than 5GB data on my free OneDrive cloud by the end of 2015, I will receive a free one-year subscription to Office 365???

I would say your file will remain for a while and they will be removed permanently.

 

[Tubamajuba]

There's no such thing as abusing UNLIMITED internet.

Stop being such an apologist to lame business practices. Either offer unlimited or don't advertise it as such.

Best part is, he would be railing against Apple if this article were about them. But because it's not Apple, it's okay.

 

[apolloa]

Yes. There is absolutely no way any one person can consume 75 TB of personal data unless they're accruing illegally acquired content and hosting it for distribution.

Actually you can easily do this legally, tons of RAW photos and 4K videos, a large collection of HD films you've ripped in lossless format. Documents and spreadsheets even etc and backups of devices.

 

[gluckett]

So you'd be okay with people abusing something you give away for free, I doubt it very much. Plenty of other companies have had to pull back data allowances etc because a few have abused the system.

Again, as others have asked, how exactly is it abusing the system if you supposedly have UNLIMITED storage? Unlimited is unlimited, period. If you want to tout your service as something, don't complain when people actually use it as advertised.

 

[AFEPPL]

I deem this a classless act from Microsoft, especially for reducing free user's storage from 15GB to 5GB. I did not use that much space and I am glad I did not. But I am sure many people will be put off by this. The inconvenience caused and the broken promise just really inconceivable for me.

Doesn't that put MS in line with iCloud?
Just saying, they'll all level off at the same limit once the take up hits a desired level.

I dont get the fandom, if it had been apple people on here would be "too right" and "yeah great move"...

 

[maflynn]

1 TB is virtually unlimited cloud storage - at least to me. I'm not really worked up over MS reducing the storage. I wished they'd improve the performance and stability of OneDrive though. So far DropBox is still faster and easier. I still have problems with onedrive from time to time.

 

[autumnpatchouli]

Microsoft came to me, a total Apple user, and offered unlimited photo backup, 15GB of storage, with a 15GB bump for using the camera backup. Then they said I could have another 100GB of storage for two years, no charge. Other than the photo backup, I use just under 5GB on file storage. I'm the guy that helps balance out the people that are on the other end of the spectrum. Dropping it down to 5GB is a deal breaker. I pay Apple $0.99 a month for what used to be 25GB of storage, which they increased to 50GB a month ago. That's plenty for me.

I assume MS gave me all that in the first place so that I might use more of their products, and I did. I figured, hey, you're giving me something for free, so I'll use Bing on occasion, and I even tried Outlook mail. But pulling out the rug completely just ended all that.

I get that people abuse stuff, but they did say unlimited storage. As a long time Windows user, and only a 3 year Apple devotee, I was letting them back in just a little bit. But to punish the masses for the abuse by the few is really short-sighted on MS's part.

 

[dumastudetto]

I can understand them removing the unlimited tier, it was never going to be sustainable long-term, and I'm sure it's served it's purpose in helping them gain traction against their more established rivals. I am surprised they are going to take away the bonus storage users have earned through various promotions over the years though. I wonder if they have really thought that one out, and considered the goodwill they are going to burn. Dropbox does something similar and I've never seen them remove bonus storage users have earned. My guess is Microsoft will probably be on the receiving end of some backlash and will reverse course on it.

 

[crawler1975]

i think the best way Microsoft should have dealt with this issue is to just grandfather any existing "unlimited" storage and other plans and then introduce new tiers. This way those people affected won't be put off by this "ninja" move. Clearly if you offer something "unlimited" you should brace yourself of the repercussions.

 

[Eric Jensen]

" a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings"

so you snoop on our files? no thanks.

Actually this is not news, we knew this already, they scan all your files.
Here's a gallery of pictures that got different user accounts blocked and accused of various things.
http://www.computerworld.dk/galleri/Skydrive (WARNING: some NSFW in some countries. )

Guess what the marzipan baby got one user accused of.

 

[big-ted]

Microsoft is an amateur company that produces amateur hardware and amateur software for the ignorant and stupid people of the world.

Bewildering that anyone trusts Microsoft, given all the years that it has produced poorly designed and poorly manufactured products, backed by meaningless marketing nonsense.

People see the words "Office Professional" and seem to think that in using MS products they are professionals and power users, when they are in fact using amateur software to do amateur clerical work.

No doubt that's why most businesses and industry uses Windows and Microsoft Office products rather than Apple

 

[Gudi]

So you trust Dropbox or Apple's iCloud? Why?

Because unlike Microsoft or Google, Apples financial success relies entirely on repeated hardware sales based on end user satisfaction. That's me, I'm the end user. They are trying to make me happy not anybody else. Even back when OS X cost money, it was a pleasant experience to install an illegal copy of OS X on a legally purchased Mac. To make the install experience better was more important to them than preventing software piracy. That's how much Apple cares about me, their user. That's why they deserve my loyalty. Than they lowered the price of almost all their great software to my preferred price point of free with hardware. Now I'm no longer even doing anything illegal. That's a good feeling on which I build my trust in Apple.

Now you, tell me about your experience as a user of Windows 10 and Office 365. Did Microsoft blame you for exceeding the unlimited storage you pay for every month? How does that make you feel - betrayed?

 

[blackcrayon]

The only way I can think is by having some serious 5k raw footage or a pro photographer who's been in the field for 10 years shooting RAW pics......

Makes no matter to me, I'm happy with my 365 subscription, Mac's are backed up to a QNAP NAS, my photo library and documents are backed up to OneDrive - as I've set all my families accounts up to do as well.

OR, as you & microsoft mentioned, a tech savvy user interested in doing historic full backups of their PC, or maybe a business full of PCs

 

[djplong]

This really sucks. I have about 700GB of pictures, movies from my phones and cameras, scans of the dozens of boxes of photographs I've take in the last 40 years. I already have all those pictures on a Storage Spaces array so that losing any one drive doesn't damage a single irreplaceable picture. As an Office 365 subscriber, I was looking forward to taking that library (which I just got organized) and syncing it to OneDrive for off-site storage (guarding against something like the house burning down) as it was supposed to be "unlimited". Now there will be limits and I don't know how much more space for these legitimate files I'll be needing. When we go on vacation, we typically take thousands of pictures (to say nothing of video files) so, while the 1TB limit might be ok now, it won't be ok at some time in the future...

 

[maflynn]

i think the best way Microsoft should have dealt with this issue is to just grandfather any existing "unlimited"

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I wonder if they saw the extent people went too for carrier unlimited bandwidth and decided a quick move was better then a slow death.

 

[Gudi]

No doubt that's why most businesses and industry uses Windows and Microsoft Office products rather than Apple.

Businesses don't use software, they buy software. Employees use software, but rarely are allowed to choose by their own preferences. That's where cheap IBM-compatible PCs flood the "professional" market. A good computer is the one you would buy for yourself.

 

[jase1125]

BS on the speed comment earlier. I have 300 up/down and OneDrive keeps up just fine. In fact when I export images and videos to a folder that automatically syncs from my Mac to onedrive, the upload maintains enough upload speed to match my Lightroom exports. I exported over a GB of images and when the export finished, about three files remained in the folder that had not been uploaded yet. It finished within the next few seconds. Stick to facts please.

 

[RockSpider]

Ask

This really sucks. I have about 700GB of pictures, movies from my phones and cameras, scans of the dozens of boxes of photographs I've take in the last 40 years. I already have all those pictures on a Storage Spaces array so that losing any one drive doesn't damage a single irreplaceable picture. As an Office 365 subscriber, I was looking forward to taking that library (which I just got organized) and syncing it to OneDrive for off-site storage (guarding against something like the house burning down) as it was supposed to be "unlimited". Now there will be limits and I don't know how much more space for these legitimate files I'll be needing. When we go on vacation, we typically take thousands of pictures (to say nothing of video files) so, while the 1TB limit might be ok now, it won't be ok at some time in the future...

Ask Apple for a free terabyte of iCloud.

 

[snowmoon]

They are free to change their design as they see fit but it was a crap move. In today's environment raising your cost per GB and not even matching the competition is a pretty ballsy move. Also calling something unlimited and then complaining when people use it as unlimited is crap, but what can you expect from MS the bait and switch is their winning move.

That said I manage upwards of 200tb on a single NAS system at work, some individuals alone are using 20tb, and since MS is Internet 2 connected it would be trivial to point my backups there. The growth in file sizes and consumption across the board it insane. On a fast personal connection with a OTA tuner it would be easy to consume any and all space provided with legal copies/archive of broadcasts.

 

[Rodan52]

There are always some selfish individuals who poison the well for everybody else. Overusing a service that was not designed or offered for this purpose; "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".
As far as privacy and security goes read the fine print. Microsoft uses sophisticated encryption to protect your privacy from other, not from themselves. In any case you don't have to read or play a file to see what it is, eg JPEG, MP4, IMG, .docx .pref all files can be identified by suffix, no need to open them.
In my mind cloud services are a means of data syncing temporary storage and sharing and for that they do a very good job, eg. syncing all your holiday snaps to the cloud ensures that if your device is lost or stolen your media is safe. Sending a link via email to a file that is too big to be sent as an attachment as with Google Drive, Box, OneDrive and DropBox all great services. It is not long time or permanent storage unless you consider backups. On line backups are a good idea in principal but fall down with large amounts of data. I wouldn't want to have to restore my MBP from a iCloud backup or even just my photo library. iCloud quotes times of one to four hours per Gigabyte for restore purposes, so I wouldn't want to have to restore a 500Gb HD or even my iPhone at 64Gb.
As far as privacy, security and ease of access goes a full local backup plus a bootable clone pretty much covers every contingency.

 

[ConnYoungy]

gives unlimited storage > users use that storage > "oh no we didn't mean use that much..."

 

[itguy06]

If people didn't abuse these services there would be no need for companies to go in and see what the hell was taking so much space.

Then don't call it UNLIMITED. When you make something unlimited it means I can store how my much of what I want there. And store it forever.