Microsoft hits 'delete' key: OneDrive 'unlimited' no more

You knew this was coming, right?

[tangor]

A year ago, it probably looked like a brilliant idea: bait products like Office 365 with unlimited cloud storage: documents and PowerPoints and Excel don't take up that much space, do they?

Users, given a shot at a disk that was never full, took a different view, with some punters using it as a backup for small networks or DVD collections.

Rather than buy up the Milky Way's entire supply of spinning rust to keep things going, Redmond's decided OneDrive desperately needs a downgrade.

[theregister.co.uk...]

The free side will be 5gb, otherwise, 50gb for $1,99 a month.

[bill]

They appear to have been upset that some people took them at their word and were uploading many terabytes of data. I certainly don't blame them. That's what was offered. Too bad they had to reneg on the deal.

[IanCP]

I have to admit I was never fussed about OneDrive, and I still maintain valid privacy and security concerns.

Having said that, wiser heads have since convinced me it is a fairly good option for depositing a copy of your "critical" recovery information to rebuild in the event of a catastrophic event - where all your other backup options have also been simultaneously destroyed.

It has happened, Twin Towers I believe. Commercial backup information for corporations in one Tower being safely reposited in the other Tower.

[engine]

I can't work out what went through their minds when they offered such a deal in the first place. Unlimited to 5gb is quite a shift, and I wonder what will happen to the data beyond the 5gb.

I don't put anything in the onedrive folder as the test that I ran kept coming up with an error uploading, or synchronising, so i gave up.

There are benefits to cloud storage: readily accessible world-wide (with a net connection), and IanCP says, great for critical recovery. The down side I keep getting reminded about is security and privacy. </removes tin foil hat>

[tangor]

<don't remove foil hat> This One Drive is yet another reach by IT companies to get back to "big iron" where all the computing was in one place and departments/users had to pay. I know I keep saying this, kiddies, but now we can see it for ourselves that the PC let the genie out of the bottle and all since then has been trying to stuff the critter back in.

As long as a tb is 39 bucks or less, I'll keep my own data thank you very much and, keeping the Twin Towers in mind I will also keep a copy elsewhere (and not "next door") and was doing that long before 9/11, heck back before the Berlin Wall came down.

Yet... for all that privacy of data which I truly claim and run to the hilt, there is some good that can be said for a cloud service. And I do play there, just keep it simple.

MS, these days, seems to be sending conflicting signals. Unlimited Cloud and Free Win10. We know the Cloud thing could not survive when they first announced. We now know that Win10 ain't free, it is forced (For 7,8x) and we'll see how that works out over the next year or two.

And all of this is to put the PC down to Dumb Terminal and get the Users back to Central Planning and Monthly Payments. Mark my words.

[bill]

Yes, they want everyone on the modern-day equivalent of a terminal, but this move isn't going to inspire much confidence. I really don't think IT folk or the regular consumer is going to take much inspiration from this poor marketing exercise. Storage is relatively cheap these days. It probably would have been better for them to address the issue with the people uploading 75TB collections rather than taking this step.

[tbear]

'And all of this is to put the PC down to Dumb Terminal and get the Users back to Central Planning and Monthly Payments.'

Several years ago M$ stated exactly that. They just keep on chipping away until it gets to that result.....

[tangor]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: https://www.webmasterworld.com/microsoft_windows_os/4776063.htm [webmasterworld.com] by bill - 7:54 am on Nov 5, 2015 (jst +9)

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Microsoft's changes to its OneDrive personal cloud storage prices reflect badly on the company, and have left users angry and bewildered.

Most people have at least 30GB of free OneDrive storage: 15GB as standard, and an additional 15GB bonus easily obtained by setting the camera roll on a mobile device to use OneDrive for image backup. An additional 100GB was available for $1.99 per month.

The cost of storage continues to fall; but Microsoft has gone against the trend by announcing greatly increased prices. Free storage decreases to 5GB and the 15GB camera roll bonus is discontinued, so typical users will go from 30GB to 5GB for free, a reduction of more than 80 per cent.

Further, the cost of buying extra storage is doubling, with just 50GB available for $1.99 per month.

[theregister.co.uk...]

MS claims the pricing change is due to a small number of folks who ran up 75tb and greater storage.

In other words, Microsoft deliberately pushed users towards OneDrive, encouraging them to embrace the new world of "cloud and mobile."

Now here comes this sudden and drastic price increase, which looks like a classic maneuver to tempt users in with free stuff and hoist the cost once they are hooked.

All of this appears to be part of the Windows 10 As A Service, first experienced with Office 365, a paradigm to get your content on their servers requiring a monthly "maintenance" cost, as opposed to selling the OS and getting nothing beyond that.

Meanwhile (personal comment) anyone who bought into that "free storage" and is complaining now has had their eyes opened. TANSTAAFL. I do hope that no webmasters were caught in this bait and switch!