14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently announced that it’s decreasing the amount of free storage offered to unpaying OneDrive customers, and this decision seems to have caused a new wave of criticism aimed at the Redmond-based software company.
The disappointment right now is huge after Microsoft announced one year ago with much fanfare that it was working to make OneDrive the number one cloud-based storage service on the market, not only boosting the free space for users to 15 GB (with more available, should they decide to configure camera rolls to automatically upload photos to OneDrive) but also offering unlimited storage to Office 365 customers.
Redmond is now going into reverse and is actually cutting down the free storage offered on OneDrive, and users will have to download all their files and move somewhere else or simply purchase additional space on Microsoft’s service.
Vote to show Microsoft that you don’t agree
Unexpectedly, nobody is pleased with this announcement, and a feature request posted on the OneDrive UserVoice page calls for the company to reconsider this decision and offer more free storage on its cloud service. It has already received more than 550 comments and 12,000 votes in 24 hours, which is clearly a record for a UserVoice request.
“Recently, a blog post was announced detailing that you would be reducing our free and paid storage. Only 1TB for Office 365 customers, and only 5 GB for free customers. I have been a long-time OneDrive fan, but after this upgrade I can no longer recommend it as my promised storage has been taken away. Some of us actually store a normal amount of stuff in OneDrive. Why makes us pay for those who went over the top?” the feature request reads.
Obviously, such a successful request creates more trouble for Microsoft, as the leadership team describes the company as an entity that puts consumer feedback on the first place, so should it decide to ignore this and make the announced changes to OneDrive anyway, it can clearly have a huge impact in the long term.
If the company doesn’t change its mind for the second time, the OneDrive storage cut should take place in early 2016, with an announcement expected in the first months of the next year.