Things happen, companies develop and then OneDrive changes its plan policy. If you still haven’t heard the news, Microsoft’s cloud storage service is reducing the free space you get with every account from 15GB to 5GB along with its unlimited Office 365 offer.
What does that mean for you?
The service’s decision may come as a surprise to many because up until recently, it had a lot to offer in terms of space diversity. Starting from the beginning of 2016, however, all OneDrive users will no longer benefit from unlimited space with Office 365 and the previous 15GB complimentary space will be reduced to just 5GB.
So now that I have 5GB left, what should I do?
Services are bound to develop and change the way they are doing things one way or another. There are still some things you can do to keep your files safe. Try to optimize your files to fit more into what you have.
- Delete unused files
Ok, let’s be real here, how often do you look over the photos and videos you back up? We’re sure there are some duplicate pictures laying around in your account, only taking up space. To solve this problem, take an hour to organize all your albums and delete the files you don’t need.
- Reduce the quality of your photos
Since deleting your photos won’t fully solve your storage problem, you may also be willing to compress all of the data you don’t use often. Keep in mind, however, that by doing so, you will also be reducing the detail in your photo thus decreasing the quality.
You can learn how to compress your pictures here!
- Compress your data
Compressed files take less storage and in your case – can become a necessity if you want to pack more in your 5GB account. Try collecting some of your files into an archive using Zip, Rar or another container of your choice.
Or you can skip all of these tips and try this?
Although, we did mention some possible tricks to optimize your 5GB of storage, they can become nagging to apply at some point. Imagine going through thousands of photos every week just to delete a few shots, or compressing data you may need at some point only to keep some free space available.
The sad truth, whether we like to admit it or not, is that 5GB can do almost nothing for us, especially if we want our files now and fast. We would need at least 20GB to be sure we can carry and use our data with ease.
- Use your files from every device and location
OneDrive is available from desktop, mobile and web.
You can also access pCloud from all major devices including desktop (Windows, Mac OS and Linux), mobile (Android, iOS and Windows phone coming soon) and web through my.pcloud.com
- Edit your files in the cloud, directly from your PC
OneDrive is integrated with Office 365, provided you pay for a subscription.
With pCloud Drive – our advanced desktop app, you can turn your cloud into a virtual drive and edit your files with software of your choice – for free.
- Encrypt your most important files without losing usability
OneDrive utilizes 256-bit encryption when syncing files. However, there are no encryption options after you get save your files in the cloud.
pCloud gives you the chance to encrypt every file you want, without losing usability. By activating and moving your files to the Crypto Folder, you can be sure that no one except you will ever be able to access and view your files. This is all due to client-side encryption that secures every chunk of data on your device, before it is transferred to our servers. It’s called zero-knowledge privacy.
What’s more, importing your OneDrive in pCloud is really easy. Open our web version, go to “Backups” and choose to move your data from OneDrive to pCloud.
Don’t miss the chance to have your files at full disposal.