Late last year, Microsoft announced that it would be reducing the free storage capacity of its OneDrive service from 15GB to 5GB. This change came after the apparent abuse of online storage by some users with one hoarding in excess of 75TB within a single account.
Soon after, questions arose as to what would happen to various bonus storage allotments such as the camera roll bonus. Microsoft eventually conceded and allowed users to opt in and protect their accounts from being downgraded from 15GB and losing the camera roll bonus storage. However, users had to make that intention known to Microsoft by January 31, 2016.
To further help users impacted by the change, Microsoft announced on its One Drive blog:
If you are using more than 5 GB of free storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes go into effect in early 2016. In addition, you can redeem a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
For those who have been eagerly awaiting the free offer, it appears that Microsoft has begun to send out invitations to redeem the offer. Interestingly, the offer itself may have been available for at least a month to users who had a look in the upgrade section of their OneDrive account settings on the web.
As pointed out by billyliberty over on Reddit, if you"re keen on only making use of the free Office 365 Personal subscription and the included 1TB of storage for the included one year then make sure to disable auto-renewal after checking out. You will also be required to provide a valid credit card as part of the process.
If you received the offer, would you be likely to keep the subscription after one year? Let us know in the comments section.
Source: Reddit