Outlook saying I need more storage.

It seems that you can keep all your emails (which don't take up Microsoft storage), but not the attachments (which do). The difficulty is stripping the attachments (which you've probably downloaded long ago) from the emails, without having to go through years of emails (20+ years in my case) one by one. There are ways to do this that I can find via Google, but no simple way of doing it within Outlook, which is incredibly frustrating. I deleted pretty much everything over 5yrs old, and barely made a dent in my Microsoft Storage (which was only 1GB over). It seems that the free Outlook is now aimed at users who don't keep emails for more than 3 months. Time to move on, alas.

Hi Patrick. Sorry to hear that. Somehow I don't think Microsoft in this case are being incompetent. Rather they are making a calculated attempt to move users out of the free Hotmail account by pressure, since it would presumably violate the free Hotmail signups from the past to charge them. If that is so, it would be both unethical and illegal. Having 3 times emailed the quoted net worth USD 100m Microsoft CEO Clare Barclay (who clearly felt I was not worth enough to have the courtesy to reply to) I received a useless answer from Angelica at Microsoft Escalations dept. So now I am taking the matter further, since I'm not to prepared to roll over to these ........ s who believe they are sufficiently detached from the human race to treat them like ....

Good luck.

They are a bunch of incompetent idiots....The messages are completely contradictory I also received an email stating as of Feb 1st I would need more storage, yet I was able to send and receive messages just until today, now I am trying to figure out which folders to delete, F***U Microsoft

Hi. I replied to you but my reply appears to have vanished (strange, so this time I am taking a screenshot). So please forgive if you have received my reply already. I emailed the CEO of Microsoft (Clare Barclay) three times, without the courtesy of a reply (perhaps her quoted £100m fortune makes her feel it is unnecessary). Instead I had an email from Microsoft Escalations (which at least showed that the emails sent through) saying that they are not responsible for spam, without explaining why there has been a sudden avalanche of spam at the exact moment Microsoft is trying to scare users into paying for storage, and giving users a paltry amount of storage to boot. So acting as they want in what appears to be a dishonest attempt to make Hotmail into a paid service by the back door. They don't appear to have read any of these comments, which is surprising. I pointed these things out to them , and said I didn't find their reply in anyway satisfactory. I am taking the matter further, and if and when I have some results I will post them on this site. Btw, Office Watch is useful to help navigate your way though the maze that Outlook has become. Interesting that Microsoft won the antitrust case in the 1990s, which in my view was scandalous. Good luck.

After trying to troubleshoot this very same issue I discovered the message from Microsoft below:

Changes to cloud storage

Starting February 1, 2023, cloud storage used across Microsoft 365 apps and services will include Outlook.com attachments data and OneDrive data. All data will continue to be protected with Microsoft’s comprehensive set of security features.

This update may reduce how much cloud storage you have available to use with your OneDrive. If you reach your cloud storage quota, your ability to send and receive emails in Outlook.com will be disrupted.

To ensure we offer the best experience, the cloud storage changes and new quota bar will gradually roll out on or after February 1, 2023, across your app settings, Windows settings, and Microsoft account. If you do not see the new storage experience in your settings or Microsoft account, be sure to check back in the coming weeks.

I have been using Microsoft Office 2013 for years (and enjoyed using the Outook mail software)

I was not even aware that files were being stored in OneDrive cloud storage.

When I clicked on the pink ribbon advising I needed more storage space there was an option to view OneDrive cloud storage. There were files stored there from 2015/2017 I deleted them all. A person is also presented with different options to 'purchase' increased storage capacity.

I will continue to delete what I can, but I am going to start using my (Google - gmail) account from now on.

I spent way too many hours trying to fix my outlook software and was glad when I finally found out what is truly happening.