How to prepare for OneDrive storage size cuts

Arif Bacchus

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Microsoft’s OneDrive is a great service which lets you store your files safely and securely inside the company’s cloud server network, Azure.  With two impending storage limit changes, however, you might want to prepare your account for the incoming cutbacks. What follows is a guide on how to manage the storage on your account ahead of Microsoft’s OneDrive size cuts.

Step one: Visit Manage Storage

OneDrive manage Storage section
OneDrive manage Storage section

To begin the preparations for the cutback, you should visit the “Manage Storage” section of your OneDrive account. From here, you can view the available space left in your account and make decisions on how to clean up the files on your OneDrive account. In my case, I have an Office 365 subscription, and I signed up to avoid the cutback, so my account has plenty of available space.  Even so, I would still like to clean up some free space, so stay tuned for step 2.

Step two: Click on “what’s taking up space?”

Removing files from OneDrive
Removing files from OneDrive

After visiting Manage Storage, there will be a link along the right side which says “What’s taking up space?” Pressing this will display the largest files on your OneDrive account, and will help you in making a decision on which files to remove to free up some space. In my case, this section showed me that I had a video from a trip to One World Observatory which I decided I longer needed, and so I removed it in order to free up space.

Step Three: Empty the OneDrive recycle bin

Emptying the recycle bin in OneDrive
Emptying the recycle bin in OneDrive

While OneDrive may be a cloud storage service, it still has a recycle bin just like your PC. When you delete files, they automatically go to the recycle bin just in case you might want to retrieve them again later. So, going back to the main Manage Storage page, and clicking “empty recycle bin” will permanently remove your deleted OneDrive files, and free up space on your account.

Step four (if required): Purchase an office 365 Subscription or OneDrive Storage Plan

Purchasing a new OneDrive storage plan
Purchasing a new OneDrive storage plan

In the event that cleaning up your largest files, and emptying the OneDrive recycle bin does not free up enough space, you always can purchase some more storage room. To do this, you can head back to the “Manage Storage” section of OneDrive, and click “upgrade” and then click the appropriate plan. Here in the United States, there is a $1.99/month plan, which comes with 50 GB of storage.

Office 365 plans
Office 365 plans

In addition to the OneDrive storage plans, you can also expand your storage options by purchasing an Office 365 subscription. An Office 365 home subscription will run you $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and give you 1 TB of OneDrive storage and access to Office on 5 PCs, Macs, phones, or tablets. Similarly, an Office 365 Personal subscription will run you $6.99 a month, or $69.99 for a year, and give you 1TB of OneDrive storage, and 1 PC Mac, phone, or tablet.

So, there you have it. That is how you can free up space on your OneDrive account ahead of the impending storage cuts. Were you aware of these steps? Let us know your thoughts by dropping us a comment below.