Microsoft’s OneDrive online file storage solution has undergone a number of changes, and more than one about-face, in its history. A quick recap: under the name SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service first offered 25GB of free storage, but then dropped it to 7GB back in 2012. The extra storage for existing users was grandfathered in, however. Then, in July of 2014, Microsoft again changed the terms of free storage, bumping that 7GB up to 15GB. Again, the difference from the original 25GB was grandfathered in, only this time it was separated out and included as a 10GB “Loyalty Bonus”.
Fast forward to last month, and Microsoft again changed course on free storage limits, dropping the 15GB to 5GB free, among other changes. That decision was met with a chorus of derision from consumers, so much so that the company once more changed direction, offering an opt-in program that allowed users to keep their free storage accumulated from the previous 15GB limit, and from a 10GB “camera bonus” offered to Lumia Windows Phone purchasers.
The problem is that those (ZDNet counted the number of SkyDrive users when storage was dropped from 25GB to 7GB at over 100 million) users still holding on to their “Loyalty Bonus” weren’t sure if their extra storage was staying or going. Well thanks to Microsoft employee Douglas Pearce, and Twitter, we finally have an answer to that esoteric but vexing question:
@dingl_ @onedrive Very sorry for the confusion and no change to the loyalty bonus.
— Douglas Pearce (@douglasprc) December 14, 2015
@kipkniskern @dingl_ @onedrive Loyalty bonus stays!
— Douglas Pearce (@douglasprc) December 14, 2015
@kipkniskern @dingl_ @onedrive The old loyalty bonus was never getting touched. Just the free quota and camera bonus which now you can keep.
— Douglas Pearce (@douglasprc) December 14, 2015
So there you have it. If you’ve been a loyal SkyDrive/OneDrive user since before 2012, your extra 10GB of storage is safe.
