Microsoft wants to double storage usage for OneDrive Album photos

It looks like Microsoft is planning to bring a change in OneDrive storage policies. The new change, which the company states is aimed at “improving your Microsoft 365 experience,” will result in photos uploaded to OneDrive counting twice against the storage quota.

An email shared by Dr. Windows says starting October 16, 2023, data from photos saved in your Gallery and in your albums will each count separately against your total Microsoft storage quota. This will result in the same photos taking up twice the storage.

For those unaware, Gallery is where all images uploaded to OneDrive end up. However, users also get an optional Albums feature, which may be used to create custom collections of photos and images on the site.

For what it’s worth, Microsoft says in the email it is giving customers a one-year storage boost to address the upcoming change that may affect their storage quotas. The email does not specify the size of the storage boost or whether it will be the same for all customers or calculated on an individual basis. However, the extra storage will expire one year after it has been assigned to an account.

Although Microsoft didn’t elaborate on this in the email, assigning photos independent storage in albums and the gallery might allow users to keep photos in albums even if they delete them from the gallery and vice versa.

Microsoft may have more changes in store for OneDrive. A recent report shared a teaser poster for upcoming OneDrive-related announcements on October 3rd. The company might be planning to give the service an AI makeover since that's what it has been focusing on lately

Microsoft's Power Platform Conference will be held in Las Vegas from October 3rd to 5th. It is possible that the October 3rd date could be referring to the conference.

(Via Ghacks)

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