Reduction of OneDrive Storage Under Microsoft 365 Education

Microsoft has recently announced “Changes to storage offerings across Microsoft 365 Education.” This global change has a substantial impact on higher education institutions around the world, including our university. It will significantly reduce the cloud storage limit for Microsoft 365 Education Suite. As a result, we need to make changes to our OneDrive services to ensure our needs are met sustainably.

The Impact – Reduction of Storage Capacity

  1. As part of the change, Microsoft announced that a OneDrive storage quota up to 100GB will be imposed on its free subscription accounts for all higher education institutions, including the following account groups, effective from 1 Feb 2024.
    • Departmental Accounts
    • Project Accounts
    • External User Accounts
    • Student Organization Accounts
    • Alumni Accounts (opt-in @Link service)
    • Alumni Association Accounts
  2.  You will receive warning notification from Microsoft when approaching the storage limit.
  3. If you exceed the limit, you will be unable to edit, copy, upload, or sync files in OneDrive until you reduce your storage within the limit.

Your Action

We will also notify potentially affected users separately. Please

    1. Ensure your OneDrive usage is within 100GB limit by 1 Feb 2024.
    2. Review your storage utilization regularly to understand how much you are using. Backup by moving important files to a location such as a local drive or another cloud storage etc., and remove unnecessary files in OneDrive.
    3. Click here to learn how to review your usage and identify large files in OneDrive.

Further information

The following are some, but not limited to, cloud storage options available in the market. Please visit corresponding service link for their other subscription plans.

  1. Microsoft License Plan for Education (For Departmental and Project accounts only)
  2. Microsoft Personal OneDrive (5 GB free cloud storage)
  3. Google Personal Drive (15 GB free cloud storage)
  4. iCloud (5 GB free cloud storage)
  5. Dropbox (2 GB free cloud storage)
  6. Box (10 GB free cloud storage)

 

Date Schedule
Nov 2023 Publish Webpage

LAN Admin Meeting

20-29 Dec 2023 Mass Mail to Affected Users

  • Departmental Accounts
  • Project Accounts
  • External User Accounts
  • Student Organization Accounts
  • Alumni Accounts (opt-in @Link service)
  • Alumni Association Accounts
18-22 Jan  2024 Mass Mail to Affected Users with Usage Close or Exceed 100GB

  • Departmental Accounts
  • Project Accounts
  • External User Accounts
  • Student Organization Accounts
  • Alumni Accounts (opt-in @Link service)
  • Alumni Association Accounts
Feb 2024   Implement the new storage limit and prevent users from editing, copying, uploading, or syncing files in OneDrive if they exceed the limit  

Note: The timeline is subject to change depending on Microsoft’s policy and technical feasibility. We will keep you updated with any changes as soon as possible. 

 

 

1. Who is impacted by the Storage Reduction? 
Microsoft announced that a OneDrive storage quota up to 100GB is imposed on its free subscription accounts for all higher education institutions effective from Feb 2024. These accounts include, 

  • Departmental Accounts
  • Project Accounts
  • External User Accounts
  • Student Organization Accounts
  • Alumni Accounts (opt-in @Link service)
  • Alumni Association Accounts
2. How to check the size of my OneDrive?
  • Then select More settings on the right-hand-side menu >  Storage metrics
    OneDrive_StorageMetric_Eng

or Click  here for details. 

3. Why has my OneDrive storage size been reduced to 100 GB?

Microsoft has adjusted the storage limits for certain plans, including the Microsoft 365 free subscription plan. The new storage size is 100 GB. 

4. What happens to my existing files that exceed 100 GB?
Your existing files will remain accessible, but you won’t be able to edit, copy, upload, or sync  files if the 100 GB limit has been reached. Please reorganize your files and remove any unnecessary items to free up space. Besides, your OneDrive files will be deleted after 1 year of exceeding your OneDrive storage quota as mentioned at Microsoft Support Page “My OneDrive says it’s full”.
5. Can I purchase additional storage beyond 100 GB?
Unfortunately, the Microsoft 365 free subscription plan does not offer additional storage options beyond the 100 GB limit. Please check Alternate Cloud Storage for other solutions.
6. What solution for departmental/project accounts for additional storage?
Please refer to Alternate Cloud Storage for other solutions.
7. Are there any changes to sharing and collaboration features?
If you exceed your OneDrive quota limit, you can still share documents with others using OneDrive. However, shared documents will only be accessible to others in read-only mode.
8. How do I download my files from OneDrive to another repository?
Please go to here for more details you need to know.
9. I deleted files by mistake! What can I do? 
Don’t worry if you mistakenly delete OneDrive files. As OneDrive has a helpful feature that allows you to restore deleted files within 30 days from the recycle bin. So, you can easily retrieve those files if needed.