Important: OneDrive and McGill Outlook email storage space reduction.
Students! Please read carefully since the information contained in this announcement will affect your ability to store files in your OneDrive account and may affect your ability to send emails from Outlook after May 31st 2024.
Microsoft is introducing changes to our service offering across our Microsoft 365 Education suite that require us to place limits on storage. As of May 31st, 2024, students will have 20GB (Gigabytes) of OneDrive storage space, in addition to 20GB of Outlook email storage.
Why is this happening? 2023, McGill IT carefully reviewed the impact of the Microsoft storage reductions. The current storage calculation model indicates that McGill University has already exceeded its allocated quota, necessitating McGill IT to reduce our usage gradually. Overall, the decision to reduce to 20G is based on minimizing student impacts for storage, while enabling McGill to have enough capacity to manage exceptions.
Microsoft cites the changes across their Microsoft 365 for Education suite are driven by security risks, financial and sustainability considerations.
Microsoft will implement quota limits for all school tenants starting August 2024.
To ensure we meet the new allocated quota by the August deadline, McGill’s quota adjustment will start May 31st, 2024. After that date, students will have 20GB (Gigabytes) of OneDrive storage space, and 20GB of Outlook email storage.
For OneDrive:
In the spring of 2024, students who have more than 20GB of files on OneDrive will receive an email reminder to reduce their storage to the allotted limit before May 31st.
Here are some ways of rapidly clearing your OneDrive:
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Empty the OneDrive recycle bin.
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Move older, unused files and large files such as videos, PowerPoint presentations or picture libraries. shared items and application installers off your OneDrive to another location such as your computer.
Please consult this article if you want to check your current OneDrive storage.
Please be advised that if your OneDrive exceeds 20GB after May 31st, you won’t be able to store new files on it until you have reduced its size appropriately. (Just like when your voicemail is full).
For Outlook email:
In the case of Outlook, if your storage exceeds 20Gb after May 31st, you will not be able to send and receive emails until you have reduced your storage below the limit.
Please consult this article if you wish to know your current Outlook storage:
If you use Outlook for Windows*: If certain emails contain valuable but heavy attachments, we suggest you use the “Save as” drop-down option, on the attachment to download them. Once saved elsewhere, you can remove them from Outlook by using the “Remove attachments” option from the same menu.
*Please note: these options are only available on Outlook for PC, not on the online or Mac versions. If you only have access to these platforms: download the attachments then delete the email.
Need help?
If you have questions, please visit the IT portal where you can search for “OneDrive” or “Outlook” to will find numerous Knowledge Base articles that will provide answers to most of your questions.
If you need more storage space:
- investigate using collaborative solutions like Teams and SharePoint.
- if you are supporting a research project, check with the researchers overseeing the project(s) if you can store research related files in the project’s collaborative storage space.
For special storage needs: please use this form to request additional space.
Examples of appropriate extended storage space requests: Collected research data or video content related to research project or class projects exceeding allotted storage. Extra storage requests will be evaluated on an individual basis, priority will be given to graduate studies students and students involved in research projects involving large datasets and video recordings. Please note that supplemental storage can be refused.
If you store data on a non-McGill-approved storage platform, please review McGill University’s data storage guidelines and policies.
