Over 20,000 Users Petition Microsoft to Stop OneDrive Capacity Downgrades

Just days after Microsoft announced wide sweeping changes for OneDrive, users have started pushing back. Microsoft is planning to remove its unlimited storage option, restore a 1TB cap, remove the 100 and 200GB options and cutting free users down to 5GB from 30GB (15GB + 15GB Camera Roll). Given these changes, it’s not surprising that petitions on Change.org and the OneDrive forums have taken off.

The Change.org petition is the tamer and less ambitious of the two. It simply asks for the 100 and 200GB tiers to remain as options. With the new changes, only the a new 50GB and 1TB option are available. It also asks that the 15GB Camera Roll bonus for all users be reinstated. In regards to the “abuse” of the unlimited storage which prompted these changes, the petition suggests a 2TB cap for the highest tier and notes that the limited capacities of the other tiers couldn’t have led to abuse, meaning they shouldn’t have been changed. This petition has 5,500 signature so far.

On the OneDrive forums, the protest is much more vocal. Here, it asks that Microsoft cancel their planned changes and keep things as they are. They note that 5GB is pretty much useless in today’s world and want Microsoft to deal with the “abusers” in such a way that normal users won’t be affected. Not surprisingly, there are at least 18,720 votes for this suggestion. Given that way voting works on the forums, there may be as many as 56,165 users who have voted for this petition.

Given the retroactive application of the new policies, it’s not surprising that many current and future OneDrive users are up in arms about the whole thing. Even if Microsoft felt there was a need to change their plans, applying it only to future customers (excepting the abusers) would have been much more palatable. In the end, given the response to the even greater backlash from Windows 10, Microsoft will probably soldier on and do things their way.