OneDrive Data Retention

Question

OneDrive Data Retention

Kirk Gardner 20

I had Office 365 Personal (bought from Best Buy) which gave me OneDrive. I wanted to switch to Office 365 Family. I was told I needed to work through Best Buy (not Microsoft) to do this. I purchased Office 365 Family from Best Buy, and Geek Squad helped me loading the programs from Family. They told me to then cancel the Personal subscription. I have gotten mixed info from them and others regarding my OneDrive files.

Does the OneDrive I got with Personal remain automatically and integrate with Family? after a couple of days, it is still there and accepts new file saves.

If not, will I get a new OneDrive? If so, how do I transfer my files from the Personal OneDrive to the new Family one?

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Answer 1

Craig Long 18,630

Hi Kirk,

Yes, the OneDrive you have with Personal will remain automatically integrated with the Family plan. You don't change accounts (or OneDrive) when you change subscription plans. You keep the same account with the same OneDrive. But of course, you must purchase the subscription on the same account.

See this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accounts-billing/subscriptions/switch-between-microsoft-365-subscriptions

I hope that helps.

Craig

Kirk Gardner 20 Reputation points

2026-07-31T21:50:38.69+00:00

Thank you for this. When you say "purchase the subscription on the same account" I don't know if that applies here. I originally tried to switch to Family on the Microsoft site, and it indicated since personal was bought at Best Buy, I had to get it from them. I bought Family from Best Buy and then cancelled Personal.
Kirk Gardner 20 Reputation points

2026-07-31T21:51:41.6133333+00:00

Thank you for this. When you say "purchase the subscription on the same account" I don't know if that applies here. I originally tried to switch to Family on the Microsoft site, and it indicated since personal was bought at Best Buy, I had to get it from them. I bought Family from Best Buy and then cancelled Personal.
Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points

2026-07-31T22:37:44.89+00:00

When you sign into your account at account.microsoft.com, then go to the subscriptions tab, you should see the Microsoft 365 Family subscription you just purchased. If not, you should contact Best Buy. I hope they did not create a new account for you, since you did not want that.
Kirk Gardner 20 Reputation points

2026-07-31T22:42:58.78+00:00

Yes, Family does show as a subscription on Microsoft (I think that’s also where I canceled Personal) so it sounds like my OneDrive will stay as is. Thank you for the detailed responses.
Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points

2026-07-31T22:47:51.5233333+00:00

Great! Did you turn off recurring billing for Microsoft 365 Personal? If you don't see Turn off recurring billing, it means your subscription will end on the date specified in Expires on.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accounts-billing/subscriptions/turn-recurring-billing-on-or-off-for-a-microsoft-subscription
Craig Long 18,630 Reputation points

2026-07-31T22:55:35.73+00:00

I edited my previous reply for clarity, so please check it again.
Kirk Gardner 20 Reputation points

2026-08-01T18:06:35.5933333+00:00

Personal doesn't even show up anymore. It was fully cancelled, I believe.