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Score ane for the annals of the strange: Microsoft has announced that it volition be downgrading OneDrive storage for all plans across the board. In a blog postal service entitled "OneDrive storage plans alter in pursuit of productivity and collaboration" — diction reminiscent of when a visitor announces layoffs by "right-sizing" — the company said that it volition exist eliminating its Unlimited program for Office 365 and reducing maximum storage on its other plans.

Hither's the recap, from Microsoft'southward blog:

  • We're no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
  • 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB program for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
  • Costless OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to v GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will besides be discontinued. These changes will commencement rolling out in early 2016.

This is cold comfort to anyone who has moved their stuff over to OneDrive thinking that the company would at least stay roughly equivalent with Google and its other peak competitors. For example, $i.99 now gets you 50 GB of storage instead of 100 GB like information technology did yesterday. And a free plan of just five GB, while more than what y'all get with Dropbox, is now equal to Apple iCloud and much less than Google Bulldoze (fifteen GB).

What'southward really strange and seemingly petty to us is Microsoft's explanation, which the visitor is pinning on "a small number of users [that] backed upwards numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings." Microsoft said that in some cases, it "exceeded 75 TB per user, or 14,000 times the average."

This begs the question: Does Microsoft utilise man beings? Did they not know that, given the opportunity, a small number of people will take advantage of something if it's free to exercise then (after paying the initial service fee), and that if you're going to offer an Unlimited plan of some kind, that yous kind of take to business relationship for it and gyre with it? This reminds me of when Verizon first started capping and throttling its so-chosen Unlimited data plans way dorsum in the 3G days, and when customers first realized habitation ISPs that supposedly lacked monthly data caps were doing the same to heavy BitTorrent users.

To aid with the transition, Microsoft says:

  • If you are an Part 365 consumer subscriber and have stored in excess of one TB, you will exist notified of this change and will exist able to keep your increased storage for at least 12 months.
  • If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and find that Office 365 no longer meets your needs, a pro-rated refund will exist given.
  • If you are using more than 5 GB of complimentary storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes get into effect in early 2016. In improver, you lot can redeem a free one-year Function 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
  • Electric current customers of standalone OneDrive storage plans (such as a 100 or 200 GB plans) are not afflicted by these changes.

The changes to OneDrive are effective immediately. While we were preparing this blog mail service, Microsoft's OneDrive weblog was even down for some reason, leading us to wonder exactly how Microsoft is going to concur upward in a cloud-focused earth. Amazon, Google, and Dropbox seem to have this cloud storage matter down pat–perhaps Redmond should requite ane of them a telephone call for some help.