Has Microsoft’s unilateraldecisionto reduce free OneDrive accounts from fifteen to just five gigabytes of cloud storage left you totally flabbergasted? If so, you’re not alone.An online petitionat the OneDrive feedback website has received more than 70,000 votes already. Feeling the heat, the Windows maker todayannouncedan opt-in offer that will permit all affected OneDrive customers to keep their fifteen gigabytes of free storage space, as well as their fifteen-gigabyte camera roll bonus.
What’s going on here?
“I have been a long-time OneDrive fan, but after this upgrade I can no longer recommend it as my promised storage has been taken away,” reads the petition at Microsoft’s website. “Some of us actually store a normal amount of stuff in OneDrive. Why makes us pay for those who went over the top?”
How to keep your free OneDrive space
Step 1:Visitpreview.onedrive.com/bonus/in a web browser.
Step 2:Click theKeep your free storagebutton. “Click below and your account will not be affected when the amount of free storage changes from 15 GB to 5 GB and the +15 GB camera roll bonus is discontinued,” reads the description.
Step 3:Log in with your Microsoft account when asked.
If all went well, a confirmation message should pop up saying that your OneDrive won’t be affected by the upcoming storage changes. That’s it, you may now keep both your 15GB of free storage and 15GB camera roll bonus.
Keep in mind that this offer must be redeemed by June 23, 2025 and is limited to one redemption per person or account.
One poorly communicated offer
Douglas Pearce, Microsoft Group Program Manager, has apologized to users:
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.
Microsoft isn’t changing its plans to remove unlimited storage: the free 15GB tier will get reduced to 5GB and customers will no longer have the option to opt-in to keep their 15GB of free space after June 18, 2025.
The company argues that it has to kill unlimited storage plans because a small potion of customers were using 14,000 times the average storage, or 75 terabytes, by backing up multiple PCs and storing entire movie collections and DVR recordings.
It’s an incredibly poorly communicated offer because those who aren’t aware of it will be affected by the storage decrease, but things are as they are.
“We are all genuinely sorry for the frustration this decision has caused and for the way it was communicated,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.
The OneDrive iOS app is available for free in the App Store.
