Microsoft has gone back on its promise to offer unlimited OneDrive storage plans to customers, fuelling outrage among disillusioned users.
The powers that be in Redmond made the sweeping changes to its OneDrive plans overnight, in a bid to cancel out abuse of the offering from a small group of customers.
But the move - seen as a slap in the face for loyal users - has prompted a backlash, with many threatening to jump ship to industry rival Google Drive as a result.
As explained on the Microsoft OneDrive Blog, “instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios”, the tech giant now wants to target the “majority of OneDrive users”.
The result?
“We’re no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers,” Microsoft states. “Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.”
Terms of the deal will also see the removal of 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans for new users, to be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $US1.99 per month in early 2016.
In addition, free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new while the 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued starting in early 2016.
But despite the plans - and Microsoft’s apparent justification for the move - users have taken to the comments section of the Blog to voice their displeasure (sic).
“Why punish everyday subscribers for those that are abusing your system with possibly illegal content,” writes John, calling the move “a huge back down”.
Going even further, Pedro wrote; “AGREED!!!goobye onedrive!!!hello gdrive!!!”.
According to Doug, “the problem is you sell something “unlimited” and then find later that they had a hidden limit all along. Going from 40GB to 15GB is a big hit.
“I was ready to expand my use of the service and pick up an O365 subscription, but the heck with that. Not after this change. No way.”
