Microsoft Gives OneDrive Users A Way To Keep 15GB Base And Camera Roll Storage After Quota Change Rolls Out

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Microsoft sure did tick off a lot of customers when it announced some sweeping changes to its OneDrive storage tiers back in early November. The company informed users that it would nix the unlimited storage option and rollback the free 15GB storage tier to 5GB (along with killing the 15GB camera roll bonus). And if that wasn’t enough, Microsoft also vaporized the 100GB and 200GB plans, replacing them with a neutered 50GB option.

Microsoft claimed that it took such drastic actions to stifle the few customers that were actually taking the company up on the “unlimited” offer by using OneDrive to store entire machine backups and massive movie libraries. “In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average,” said Microsoft at the time.

The backlash to these policy changes was immense, and Microsoft has finally relented somewhat to appease OneDrive customers. “We’ve heard clearly from our Windows and OneDrive fans about the frustration and disappointment we have caused,” said Microsoft in a statement. “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.

“You're an important part of what we do, and we want to make sure you know that.”

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While it doesn’t appear that Microsoft will be bringing back the unlimited or 100GB/200GB storage tiers, it is trying to make amends to those that want to hold on to their free 15GB storage tier. Microsoft is allowing OneDrive users to opt-in to keep their existing 15GB and 15GB bonus camera roll storage. You’ll need to opt-in by January 31st, 2016.

In addition to the return of the the 15GB+15GB storage tier, Microsoft will also give any customer using its free OneDrive storage service (and are currently using more than 5GB of storage space) a free year of Office 365 personal, which comes with 1TB of storage.