Microsoft changing OneDrive storage limits for students on Dec. 20 | MyNews | Seneca Students

Starting on Friday, Dec. 20, OneDrive accounts for Seneca Polytechnic students will be limited to 1 GB per account.

The reason for this change

Microsoft has recently introduced new storage limitations that significantly restrict Seneca’s storage allowance. Previously, these limitations were not in place and, unfortunately, current usage across Seneca exceeds the new limit.

What happens if you go over the limit

Any account that exceeds this limit will become read-only. Existing stored files will still be accessible, but no new files can be uploaded until space has been freed up. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, there is a need to delete unwanted files.

Managing OneDrive usage 

The amount of storage a file requires usually depends on its file type/format, with plain text files typically requiring less storage space than those that contain media elements.

Examples of storage-hungry files to spot on your OneDrive include:

• Image files such as event photos and static Seneca-branded graphics. Common formats include HEIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG and PDF
• Video files such as Teams meeting recordings and those that are used to upload to Vimeo (or YouTube, if the file is outdated by this point), which take up more space than even image files; common formats include MP4, AVI, WMV and MOV
• Content-heavy Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents

While the examples we shared above are not exhaustive, we've included some resources below to help you access and store essential files and documents.

Checking your current storage usage

This resource gives easy instructions on how to check your current storage usage and lists extra-large files taking up space:

• Managing OneDrive for work storage

When you’re ready to delete unused files, this resource walks you through the process:

• Deleting files or folders in OneDrive

While our ITS team can support you with any technical questions such as how to navigate and manage your OneDrive account, Seneca unfortunately does not have control over the new storage limitations from Microsoft.