Microsoft Abandons Plans for OneDrive Photo Storage Limit

Microsoft has decided to cancel its plan to impose storage limits on OneDrive photos after facing substantial backlash from users. In August, the company had initially announced that photos in a user’s OneDrive Gallery and their saved photo albums would individually contribute to the overall storage limit of five gigabytes, set to be implemented on October 16. This policy change took many users by surprise, prompting Microsoft to reconsider its approach due to the overwhelmingly negative response.

In an email to customers and a post on the company’s Support page, Microsoft stated, “On August 31, 2023, we began communicating an upcoming update to our cloud storage infrastructure, which would have altered the way OneDrive photos and photo albums were counted against the total storage quota. This change was scheduled to roll out on October 16, 2023. However, based on the feedback we received, we have decided not to proceed with this update.”

Microsoft did not respond immediately to Gizmodo’s request for comment regarding this decision.

Microsoft had been gradually tightening its storage offerings in recent months, beginning with changes to the free version of Outlook, where email attachments were included in the five-gigabyte OneDrive limit. This meant that users who reached this limit on OneDrive could no longer send or receive emails through Outlook until they reduced their stored files and attachments.

Microsoft is not alone in reversing course following customer backlash. Video game engine Unity had introduced a new pricing model called Runtime Fee, which charged developers a fixed rate whenever a user installed one of their games, irrespective of whether the game was sold. This decision sparked outrage among the game developer community, prompting Unity to partially amend the new guidelines. Moreover, Unity executives were reported to have sold some of their stock in anticipation of the negative response. Eventually, Unity issued an apology, thanked developers for their feedback, and introduced a revised Runtime Fee plan.