back to article 2TB or not 2TB: Microsoft fiddles with OneDrive as competition offers twice the storage

Microsoft is emitting a raft of tweaks to its OneDrive offering this month, but has yet to address the elephant in the room. Or rather, the lack of elephantine storage in the room. In its announcement Redmond cheerfully points to all the new toys incoming over August, with Android users being singled out for particular love. …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    scanning directly into OneDrive via the device’s camera

    I absolutely love the suave and understated - I might even say bashful - specification of this giant security hole.

    Did anybody actually ask for this?

    1. TheVogon

      Re: scanning directly into OneDrive via the device’s camera

      Why is that any worse than one drive just uploading your photos?

      1. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

        Re: scanning directly into OneDrive via the device’s camera

        Beat me to it :-)

    2. Timmy B

      Re: scanning directly into OneDrive via the device’s camera

      "Did anybody actually ask for this?"

      I didn't - but I'll use it.

  2. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    1Tb of storage ... what would I store if I had 2Tb?

    Lots more data ...date of birth, contact information, criminal conviction information, ethnicity, medical information, religion, login information, signature, tax information, insurance information, informal reference, national insurance number, passport information, social security number, visa/travel information, CV / resume, driver’s license/vehicle identification information, seafarer information, bank account information, payment card information, financial information, address information and/or information concerning minors...

    OK, so having plenty of storage is nice but it's a big potential security hole too - it would be interesting to see just how many of these "easy to create" free accounts are being abused to sling information around.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Re: 1Tb of storage ... what will I store?

      1 Trillion files... each with a size of 1 byte... ;-)

      1. Korev Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: 1Tb of storage ... what will I store?

        That's errr 8 bit nasty; but I admire your BOFHery skills -->

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'Hopefully without recourse to a progress bar of randomness'

    https://xkcd.com/612/

  4. Pen-y-gors

    It would be nice...

    if they just got the blasted thing to work.

    Our community group uses OneDrive - very handy for sharing files.

    Our main laptop (Win 7) now can't handle it - the sync system disappears. Try reinstalling it and it says there's a newer version already there, please remove it first. Uninstall fails. Microsoft advice? Uninstall and reinstall!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OneDrive For Android?

    Didn't know there was even such a beast. Makes sense really - after all, it's not like there are any windows phone users

    1. IceC0ld

      Re: OneDrive For Android?

      after all, it's not like there are any windows phone users

      ==

      AHEM, THAT would be me :o)

  6. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

    One with getting just 1TB anda a second time being saddled with Orifice 365.

    Still, I suppose you don't HAVE to use Orifice.

    1. Gordon 10

      Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

      What the article doesn't mention is that for £6.66 a month you can get the Office Family plan. That's up to 4tb of storage across 4 users (1tb each), plus 5x4 installs of office 365 and desktop versions including Outlook across Android, iOS, Macos and Windows.

      Personally it's almost enough to make me like MS!

      1. cambsukguy

        Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

        correct, except that I get 5 users, which I use so I know it is 5.

        It is a pretty good deal really, 1TB for each of those 5, plus 60mins/months of calls to foreign numbers on Skype, including mobiles, which can matter in a pinch.

        And an always-up-to-date, legal Office suite on multiple platforms for each person.

        Honestly, a no-brainer.

        1. Dog Eatdog

          Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

          It would be a no brainer if you could rely on OneDrive to actually sync flawlessly.

          Personally, I will stick with Dropbox, because it works.

        2. Timmy B

          Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

          "correct, except that I get 5 users, which I use so I know it is 5."

          Yep - this is correct. I do the same. I do even better as I share it with my Dad and his other half and they pay half the subscription - so I get 3 installations including 3TB of one drive for £4 a month. Just can't argue with that value.

          I even have onedrive syncing those three accounts and data to my NAS so that I have a backup independent to MS and off of the internet.

        3. Adelio

          Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

          1. I do not trust Microsoft

          2. I do not want to store all my information in the clound (and have to pay for it)

          3. I do not want to be tied to a regular subscription for office/cloud storage

          4. I do not trust Microsoft

          As far as cloud storage is concerned I do not want to be beholden to any company for storing my data. After all they could decide to Stop providing it, increase the price or reduce what you get for the price or change the terms and conditions at a moments notice.

          Personally once i installed office i have no intention of upgrading it unless I am forced to as it is no longer supported on the current Microsoft platform. (thanks Microsoft)

          Asside from Outlook, which seems to be the only decent e-mail app. (I hate Web e-mail interfaces)

          Word/Excel I rarely use the rest of office at home.

          I think i would prefer to switch to open office rather than spend a load of money on a new (usless) version of office. After all I probably currently only use about 5% of the word or Excel features!

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

            Six, six, six was that?

            1. werdsmith Silver badge

              Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

              What the article doesn't mention is that for £6.66 a month you can get the Office Family plan.

              Well, my son is at Uni, I am doing a Masters, my wife works in a school and my daughter attends school.

              So we all get O365 thrust at us without choice or cost.

              Yet I still don't use it. I have one offline copy of Word which I open and save my documents in just the once to make sure that the formatting is going to be OK at the publisher.

          2. phuzz Silver badge
            Linux

            Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

            1. I do not trust Microsoft [...]

            Well don't use their software then, there's plenty of choice.

            Libre/Open Office both work great. Thunderbird is a fine email client. Linux and OSX both work. There's plenty of other cloud storage providers if you need that (although you might have to pay a subscription, that's how renting something works).

            Why would you continue using Windows if you dislike everything about it?

            1. elgarak1

              Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

              All correct, and this is what I do. Compared to the services and apps I use, Microsoft's Office is overpriced and, frankly, too bad in usage to be acceptable.

              The problem is that it is often UNAVOIDABLE. If you are a publishing author, you're required to submit and communicate the details of your manuscript with a Word-file, which means you have to keep at least Word (as the alternatives are not bug-identical, hence you cannot rely on them to accurately predict what will happen if you sent your file over!).

              If you are in a business (as a publishing author), you're expected to be available on Skype. And so forth.

              I. do. not. want. to. use. Microsoft. products. They're crappy to use, expensive, and data-mine as much as free services like google – despite having to pay. If you pay for the business google plans, they reduce data-mining. Microsoft does, too – on the business plans (or so they say. Don't really trust their assertions...). On the family plans, you still pay, and get data-mined (so they say, and I believe them)! I'm better off, financially, using the free plans from others than using Microsoft's private plans. I get data-mined both ways, but I don't have to pay on top.

              But I must. Which means I have to get a Microsoft business plan. For stuff I actually don't want or need. For stuff for which MUCH better alternatives are out there. Because the powers-that-be have been brow-beaten to accept that Microsoft is THE STANDARD.

              Sigh.

              1. elgarak1

                Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

                And, actually, I'm kicked thrice, because I'm a Mac-user, which means I'm not getting the full Office complement of Windows (there's no Publisher or Access – not that I wanted them – and they're even more buggy).

                And since I'm in Germany, I would need the GERMAN Business Office Plan – even more expensive (€11 per month for installable apps), even less functions, but keeps the data-mining demon at bay – besides, I'm practically required to get it since I have to handle and keep safe not only MY data, but also of MY customers.

                Again, this is pure empty money. It does not help me in any way, shape or form to fulfill my job. There are better ways.

                Only because Microsoft kicks from above.

              2. werdsmith Silver badge

                Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

                The problem is that it is often UNAVOIDABLE. If you are a publishing author, you're required to submit and communicate the details of your manuscript with a Word-file, which means you have to keep at least Word (as the alternatives are not bug-identical, hence you cannot rely on them to accurately predict what will happen if you sent your file over!).

                Yes, this exactly. And (at least with my publishers) it has be be save in Word 97-2003 format too.

                WTF?

                1. elgarak1

                  Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

                  At least with the olden .doc (Word 97-2003) format, you can use any old Word installation, and increasingly alternative like LibreOffice, as the file format is unlikely to undergo significant changes.

                  And to go back to the "1TB vs. 2TB" problem: I barely scratch the 5GB [sic] of the free Apple iCloud service with the stuff I need to put on the cloud.

          3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

            Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

            As far as cloud storage is concerned I do not want to be beholden to any company for storing my data

            Indeed. Which is why I run Nextcloud on a VM at home.. (mirrored eslewhere as a backup)

      2. ridley

        Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

        £6.66? Sometimes it is too easy, so I won't.

        Who thought that that would be a good price to charge?

        1. Tenkaykev
          Pint

          Re: So. Kicked in the crotch twice, eigh?

          As an aside. My favourite tipple Innis and Gunn Barrel Aged. As the name says it is aged in Bourbon Barrels. It comes in a 660ml bottle. It is 6.6%. It's a devilishly good beer, especially when on offer at Waitrose for £2.50 :-0

          Hic

  7. RudderLessIT

    How much do we need?

    I have implemented OneDrive for Business as part of 365 three times and I have seen some pretty big changes.

    Being able to go up to 5TB is nice and working with researchers, they have big requirements for storage. But in reality, most of the larger data entities live on the file server, because who wants to upload/download images that are measured in hundreds of gigabytes?

    So as soon we told everyone to not put their images up there, the top users of OneDrive storage were nowhere near 500GB.

    So I wound up using the 5TB quota for change management (it works and you get all the space).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: How much do we need?

      > I have implemented OneDrive for Business as part of 365 three times

      Translation: you clicked "OK" when prompted.

    2. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: How much do we need?

      There's even a somewhat working Linux sync client for OneDrive (for Business) now. It's a slight faff to set up (systemd only) but it does sync ok.

  8. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Do you get warned if you go over the data limit?

    Is there a OneDrive Repair Tool?

  9. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Go

    To a point, Lord Copper...

    Office365 Home is £80/year headline price, often discounted to below £50/year, for which you get 5 accounts each with 1TB of OneDrive, and full Office licences for five users on a bunch of devices each. Cracking value for money.

    For the best discounts, wait for Amazon Prime Day, buy a licence, and add it to your existing subscription. It's fully cumulative, mine currently expires in 2021.

    (Can we have a "To a point, Lord Copper..." icon, please?)

    GJC

    1. Spanners Silver badge
      Go

      Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

      Does Office365 include Publisher?

      Someone asked me recently and, as I dont use it, I didn't know. I am not quite clear what the website means when it says "Publisher and Access are available on PC only."

      Does that mean that the cloudy version of these only works on the PC or whether you have to install those on the computer in the time honoured manner?

      1. MAF

        Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

        According to this Ziff-D post you get Publisher but only for Windows (Macs need not apply)

        https://www.zdnet.com/article/which-apps-are-in-office-365-plus-answers-to-other-popular-google-searches/

        HTH

      2. Geoff Campbell Silver badge

        Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

        Yes, Publisher is included, I think (I don't use it myself, but it's listed in all the subscription plans).

        "PC Only" just means it's only available as a locally installed application under Windows, not as a web service or mobile device App, all of which platforms are covered by the core application like Word and Excel.

        GJC

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

      I think you mean "Up to a point, Lord Copper..."

      regards

      Boot of the Beast

      1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

        Brevity is the soul of wit, dear boy. I felt mine was better balanced than the over-wordy and flabby original.

        GJC

    3. IHateWearingATie

      Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

      "For the best discounts, wait for Amazon Prime Day, buy a licence, and add it to your existing subscription. It's fully cumulative, "

      That's a cunning tip. Have an upvote :)

      1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

        <bows>

        GJC

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And when they can the whole lot ?

    Because currently all tech vendors have scrapped far more than they have ever continued to support.

    What's to stop OneDrive going the way of Windows Phone ?

    1. JimmyPage Silver badge

      Re: And when they can the whole lot ?

      Seems MS have the best trollbots on the net. Shame the stuff they flog isn't as good.

  11. nijam Silver badge

    > ... also gets you Office for PC or Mac ...

    So would a 2TB offering dump 2 copies of Office on you?

    Personally, I'd rather forgo Office, and have the extra space. But that's not in the MS plan for making money, is it?

  12. Andytug
    Devil

    The "progress bar of randomness"...

    has been replaced in Win10 by the "percentage of randomness"....which bears just as little resemblance to the time actually taken to do the update/upload/download/whatever as the progress bar did.....

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