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Empty your free 30GB OneDrive space today – before Microsoft deletes your files for you

Clouds turn to rain to hide your tears

Microsoft is cutting its free 15GB OneDrive cloud storage space down to 5GB, and eliminating the 15GB free camera roll for many users. Files will be deleted by Redmond until your account is under the free limit.

Back in November, Microsoft announced it would no longer provide free unlimited storage for Office 365 users, instead limiting them to one terabyte, and would be cutting its free OneDrive storage from 15GB to just five. People who pay for 100GB and 200GB storage also saw their account limits fall to 50GB, which costs $1.99 a month.

After an outcry in December, Microsoft let people click on a link to keep their free 15GB of OneDrive and 15GB camera roll cloud storage – but not everyone saw it. Those who signed up since then did get 7GB of free storage, and are now having this cut to the same 5GB level as everyone else.

The changes in OneDrive were necessary, Microsoft claimed, because a few bad apples were abusing the system and storing vast amounts of data in their cloud. Redmond said one OneDriver had 75TB of files stored in its cloud, although said that this was "14,000 times the average," meaning most users were more sensible.

What do Microsoft's tactics remind you of here? Who else offers gear for free and then charges once people are hooked? While some folks may have been abusing the system, others will be tempted to run to rivals like Google, which is still offering 15GB of online storage for free.

Nevertheless, there are going to be some peeved customers who didn’t respond to the email offering 30GB of free storage and now found out that their precious files and pictures have vanished into the ether.

The storage slimming has now begun and will be finished by July 27, so get backing up offline. ®

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