Outlook saying I need more storage.

Anonymous
2023-02-17T14:48:45+00:00

Hi there,

I've used a live.com account for years, and have always logged in through my browser to view emails. Today, the page loaded with a thin red notification at the top stating "From February 1, you'll need more storage to send or receive email."

Obviously, for a start, it's 16 days past February 1 which is weird, and my email is all working fine at the moment.

Clicking on "Manage Storage" opens a window, which states that my total used for my Microsoft Storage (things backed up from a laptop I hardly use, didn't even realise that they were being backed up to be honest) is 7.8GB out of a 5GB limit. I tried unsyncing my desktop on said laptop, but all it's done is remove everything from that laptop, which is pretty frustrating as I just wanted to leave the data on there and just free up some space on the Microsoft storage.

Anyway, I'm not overly bothered by that by now, as I'm more worried about my emails not working. Separate to the Microsoft storage, it lists my "Email Storage", which is 7.6GB out of 15GB. Does anyone know why I'm getting notified that I'm in danger of losing my email and pushed to buy a ridiculously expensive price plan?

Thanks in advance

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Account management, security, and privacy

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  1. Ron-6928 4,991 Reputation points
    2023-04-07T17:00:59+00:00

    That's a smartphone app. Android/iOS Outlook app can't open PST files. As far as I know desktop/PC/Mac app isn't free.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-07T17:03:21+00:00

    I really don't think it's the emails. It's One Drive. I had 4.6 GB. Deleted some stuff off of One Drive, that I didn't need and it brought it down to 3.7. Now, there's a blue bar, at the top of my email page, stating that I'm low on storage.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-07T17:10:48+00:00

    So then what is this, because this came with my laptop. We have Office 365 and I'm still getting the storage warnings, but I can open the Outlook App, on my laptop.

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  4. Ron-6928 4,991 Reputation points
    2023-04-07T17:34:46+00:00

    You paid (or are paying subscription) for 365. Outlook app is part of that 365 products. If you have Outlook app, you can export your entire mailbox (to PST). Use your Outlook app to open the exported/downloaded mailbox (PST).

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-07T21:59:16+00:00

    This may help:

    My laptop updated to Windows 11 without my consent. It is a mess with way too many annoying "upgrades". For instance, to rename a photo, you have to right click then right click at the bottom to find rename...

    So I cleaned up my email the other day and storage went down to below 5GB. The next day, storage was over 5G. Seems Microsoft sneakily added a "sync with Onedrive" feature. If you go to Settings>System, you will see "OneDrive" on the top right, just below is "back up files".

    Click on OneDrive and uncheck the 3 boxes. Voila! Storage issue is gone. Somehow, it was storing my computer files (photos, documents, downloads) to a backup file in OneDrive. Be SURE ALL 3 BOXES ARE UNCHECKED before closing the window.

    If you do want to back up your files, you will probably have to pay.

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