Onedrive's downloading speed is tremendously slow

Anonymous
2023-12-25T08:19:57+00:00

Hi everyone,

I'm confused by the fact of Onedrive's downloading speed to be very slow. I'm trying to download my video file from Onedrive and the speed is 1 MB/s only, having internet channel speed 100 mbps. Download speed from competitor's servers (Mega.nz, FREE Plan) is 10 MB/s, which utilizes my whole channel. The funny thing is that the upload speed was 10 MB/s to Onedrive's servers, but the download speed is only 1 MB/s.

I've removed any limits on download speed in Onedrive app, updated the app, changed TCP congestion protocol to BBR, but the result is the same.

Attaching here the pictures:
Onedrive download speed

Mega.nz download speed

Speed test (Microsoft)

Speed test (Ookla)

I'm quite aware of other complaints on Onedrive's download speed, but still hope for a resolution. I've sent my question to Onedrive's tech team, but here I'm posting to:

  1. Get more ideas on how to solve this issue
  2. Attract more attention to the problem

Onedrive app version for Windows 64: 23.246.1127.0002

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-04-08T16:14:14+00:00

    Is this a joke? It's obvious that Microsoft limits the download speed to prevent people from bailing on this TRASH PRODUCT.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-04-13T12:00:14+00:00

    Through Browser when download in Single session getting Bandwidth only 20-30 Mbps. I have 1Gbps connectivity.

    I get 500-650 Mbps speed in Download while download file from One Drive via Internet Download Manager (IDM) in 32 or 16 Session.

    I believe that there are cap in download in Single session from One Drive.

    Can anybody confirm it???

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-04-13T12:22:20+00:00

    Yes OneDrive is heavily capped in multiple ways.

    I have moved to a free open source version... Nextcloud. This allows me to download anything at full 10gbs, yes you read that right 10gbs so get about 1.2GB per second of download and upload.

    OneDrive use to give me about 40Mbs which was about 5MBs download... Pathetic! Years and years have gone by and Microsoft will just tell you it's your fault or your hardware and not admit that it is them.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-04-13T12:28:08+00:00

    Yes OneDrive is heavily capped in multiple ways.

    I have moved to a free open source version... Nextcloud. This allows me to download anything at full 10gbs, yes you read that right 10gbs so get about 1.2GB per second of download and upload.

    OneDrive use to give me about 40Mbs which was about 5MBs download... Pathetic! Years and years have gone by and Microsoft will just tell you it's your fault or your hardware and not admit that it is them.

    Dear @DanXF,

    Thanks for your reply. Can you please share me some reference...

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-04-14T09:48:46+00:00

    My 2nd post in as many years (or should I say tears).

    I did that (removed reliance on OneDrive). Bought a Synology NAS, which becomes part of your home network (if you have a remote location you own, you could use that for additional safety).

    Synology comes with so many FREE apps for data access, use, and backup, as well as Cloud tools. Also has a plethora of security and encryption options if you want them. Using Tailscale (also free and easy to use) means my laptop, mobile phone, and NAS are invisibly VPN'd and I can access anything from anywhere in the world, instantly.

    I then use OneDrive as the last-ditch backup of certain data on my NAS. So I'm NO LONGER DEPENDENT ON MICROSOFT, unless I have my laptop and NAS both go down, in which unlikely case, I'll be grateful it's somewhere.

    The only reason I stay with them at all is because the $100/yr I pay for the Office365 for the apps and such, includes 1TB with OneDrive. Like it or not, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word are still THE standard, which is the only reason I pay for Office365.

    Short version: Synology NAS are a beautiful thing that not enough people think of as a solution or normal necessity (like a TV).

    Bonus: it's actually a 4-Core Linux computer with 18GB of RAM, and able to run many cool apps in "containers" which I'm still learning about.

    Noteworthy: True to their word, after the OP didn't respond in time, Microsoft did stop monitoring this thread, or at least haven't since responded since, meaning our decision to be notified of replies to this thread, is more of a venting forum than it is likely to get a change by MS. Some tips like Chrome Incognito, raising OneDive bandwidth limits, and off-hours usage are helpers at least, but not an acceptable customer satisfaction solution.

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