Do you remember close to this time last year when we were chirping about Microsoft’s magnanimity  in giving unlimited storage space in OneDrive (at least to Office 365 users)? Well, it seems Microsoft has turned heel on us, and is now backing down on that promise – not to mention a few others.

In October last year we reported the move by Microsoft to make OneDrive storage unlimited, and at the time it was called a “milestone” in cloud storage by Chris Jones, the corporate vice president for OneDrive and SharePoint. He went on to say that, “unlimited storage is just one small part of our broader promise to deliver a single experience across work and life that helps people store, sync, share, and collaborate on all the files that are important to them, all while meeting the security and compliance needs of even the most stringent organizations.”

The main reason, Microsoft has explained, that unlimited storage is to be discontinued is that it has been abused. Microsoft says it wants people to use the cloud more for collaboration and productivity, rather than a place to dump 1000s of media files. However, in the consumer’s defense, when you offer ‘unlimited’ storage then expect some people to test that to the limit. You can’t really complain about it when that happens, which would be tantamount to giving kids lollipops and feeling aggrieved when they suck. For Microsoft’s naughty consumers the treat has been snatched back.

Microsoft explained the change of heart in a OneDrive blog post, saying, “Since we started to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average. Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.”

What will change:

Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers will get 1TB of storage, not unlimited storage. If you presently have more than 1TB of storage you will be informed and have a year over the limit.

Paid plans will no longer be available for 100 GB and 200 GB, but a 50 GB plan will be made available at $1.99 per month in early 2016. If you already have a 100 GB or 200 GB plan you will not be affected.

Free OneDrive storage will shrink from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, new and old. Following the change if you have more than the allotted 5 GB you will have the additional space for a year. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will go at the start of 2016.

More information is available here.

Photo credit: Helga Weber via Flickr