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Microsoft Allowing OneDrive Users on Free Tier to Keep 15GB Free Storage and Camera Roll Bonus

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In November, Microsoft made the controversial decision to reduce its unlimited OneDrive storage to 1TB for Office 365 Home, Personal and University subscribers starting early next year. OneDrive's free storage will also be reduced from 15GB to 5GB, and the 15GB camera roll bonus will be discontinued.

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.

OneDrive-Keep-Free-Storage
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 sign up by January 31, 2016 will be able to keep their 15GB of free storage and 15GB camera roll bonus, even after Microsoft reduces its free storage tier to 5GB next year. OneDrive customers using more than 5GB of free storage will also receive a free Office 365 Personal subscription with 1TB storage for 12 months.

Microsoft is not backing down from its larger plans to discontinue unlimited storage, a decision it made because a small number of users exceeded 75 TB storage, or 14,000 times the average, by "backing up multiple PCs and and storing entire movie collections and DVR recordings." The changes take place in early 2016.

Tags: Microsoft, OneDrive

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Top Rated Comments

M
macsrcool1234
140 months ago
Meanwhile, Apple holds on to GB's like its the 1970's
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
W
Waxhead138
140 months ago
I don't think it was the petition that caused MS to reverse course.

It was the rumor of Taylor Swift being recruited to write a strongly worded letter!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
dannyyankou
140 months ago
Why don't they just pull a full 180 and keep the free tier at 15GB instead of making people jump through this BS? Invariably some people are going to miss the boat and whine about it in February.
Well people that care that much about keeping it have plenty of time to take action...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
T
Thunderhawks
140 months ago
I don't get why people are crying about free cloud space from anybody.

You have a lot of options:

1) Keep your stuff on your computer/hard drive
2) Buy more hard drives

These days HDs are very cheap.

Thinking that any business owes you something is silly.
They don't even care that the stuff they are selling you works.

Running and keeping up servers, updating software etc. costs money.
R & D how to compress things better, making up/downloads faster etc.
costs money.

Just like ATT had to cancel unlimited data, all of these players will have to go away from
providing unlimited or large storage capacity for little or no money.

They never expected the misusers, which btw they are not doing anything but taking them by the word UNLIMITED. They also weren't smart enough to recognize that people never throw anything out.

From the time a child/teenager can store music, photos, films etc. they are creating gigantic data bases
over their lifetime apr. getting to about being 76 years old.

There is no way to anticipate what is next.

I always have to laugh when people believe "lifetime membership" and UNLIMITED terms for anything.

Just pay already, cut down on your Starbucks and $ 10 a month gets you a lot of storage.

Combine that with the (currently) FREE stuff and most of all, start throwing out stuff!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
Cherwonek
140 months ago
OneDrive customers using more than 5GB of free storage will also receive a free Office 365 Personal subscription with 1TB storage for 12 months.
So let me get this straight, if I upload 5GB worth of files to OneDrive, I get a year of office 365 subscription?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
trekkie604 Avatar
trekkie604
140 months ago
Why don't they just pull a full 180 and keep the free tier at 15GB instead of making people jump through this BS? Invariably some people are going to miss the boat and whine about it in February.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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