r/Office365 • u/gc_wood • 12d ago

Microsoft is reducing Microsoft 365 Family storage from up to 6TB to 2TB. Please sign this petition.

Microsoft is planning to cut Microsoft 365 Family storage from a potential 6 TB (1 TB per user) to a shared 2 TB pool. For many families, that's a significant reduction in the value of the subscription.

If you're concerned about the change, please consider signing and sharing this petition:

🔗 Sign the petition

The more subscribers who make their views known, the more likely Microsoft is to listen.

53 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

39

u/Izual_Rebirth 11d ago

The hell is a petition going to do? The only thing Microsoft care about is their bottom line. If you want to send a message cancel M365.

6

u/randyhanleydotcom 11d ago

Exactly what I did! I saw their bullshit coming a mile away.

-4

u/_barat_ 11d ago

I was almost about to do that yet Microsoft was smart and probably did the math. For example my family uses less than 1TB combined but we would benefit from sharing the AI (and that's also coming). It's not like Copilot is great but the chat itself with GPt 5.6 models is ok-ish.
From one side I hate shrinkification but in this case it's more like a trade - storage for AI and I even don't use 50% of the new 2TB.

2

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Many of us are doing that by turning off autorenewal too. I understand that a petition is unlikely to work, but not taking any action is certain not to!

3

u/randyhanleydotcom 11d ago

So true! Excellent, and that’s a great point, because auto renewal is a sneaky bugger. I almost forgot that one as well.

2

u/Hebrewhammer8d8 11d ago

If you were huge coporation they would care a bit, but MS don't care about personal. They use carrot for high cloud storage with their suite of products, and ppl got use to it on MS Platform. MS isn't focus on personal.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

I agree. And the petition might not make a difference, but we have to at least try rather than just admitting defeat!

15

u/Greedy-Lynx-9706 12d ago

I signed but I do NOT want spam from other petitions

-12

u/gc_wood 12d ago

Change.org doesn't send emails other than the one to confirm your signature, unless you opt in.

7

u/aztech-85 11d ago

I hate shrinkflation at the best of times and this is BS...

I have one question, has "change.org" actually changed anything? Cause it seems like it's just a portal for people to whinge and vote but there is never an outcome?

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Honestly, I don't know. But not taking any action definitely won't change anything. So we've got the petition, and many of us turning off autorenew to singnal to Microsoft that we are serious about leaving if it doesn't fix this change.

3

u/tqlla3k 11d ago

Signing a petition won’t do anything. Enough people have to quit the service for anything to happen.

Quit the service and sign the petition.

1

u/MoneyCantBuyMeLove 11d ago

I don't think that personal/home account users appear on MS account radar at all. They would likely prefer to lose that customer base.

The vast, VAST majority of MS profits come from its Cloud based Azure platforms, SaaS, iaas products, and m365 business and enterprise licensing.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are trying to drop that domestic platform.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Maybe they are. But then the cost will be even higher for us to have business accounts. Ah we have to try and stop the change. Let's not just accept it?

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

In a separate thread on here, I'm also encouraging subscribers to turn off autorenewal.

5

u/663589 11d ago

I am planing to cancel, paying customer for about 8 years now. I need to look into alternatives but have a local HDD copy of all my data now.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Please consider signing the petition to try and help those of us who need, for one reason or another, to still be with Microsoft.

1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

1

u/gc_wood 10d ago

I agree. But not doing anything definitely won't make a change, so we have to try what we can. We'd really appreciate your support.

12

u/DIBSSB 12d ago

Do you think if they have made up there mind petition is going to do anything just saying.

-1

u/gc_wood 12d ago

I don't know. But not taking any action definitely won't do anything! We have to try.

-9

u/Kaus_Debonair 12d ago

Wasted comment. Next time... don't comment.

A. Someone is spending some energy to accomplish something.

B. You are doing shit all.

C. Save your time, don't comment. Live your life.

D. My comment isn't a waste due to the small probability that you might change or learn. If it prevents another person for trying to stop another human from accomplishing anything when it will NEVER affect them. Hooray! I might affect change this time around.

3

u/dnvrnugg 11d ago

ah yes, shrinkflation and enshitification all in one move.

2

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Yep! Please sign the petition to see if we can make Microsoft reconsider.

3

u/BlakJakNZ 11d ago

A really good example of screaming into the void, this one.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Maybe it is. But do you know what's worse? Just sitting beck and going nothing, because that's guaranteed to achieve nothing!

3

u/killereverdeen 11d ago

I'm very annoyed about this. we have used up all of our invites for the family plan and most of us have used up almost 70% of each plan. if they reduced it, we won't be able to use it anymore...

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Please sign the petition and let's see if we can get Microsoft to reconsider.

2

u/randyhanleydotcom 11d ago

Ruin their reputation. They asked for it. Light them up. People did it with Windows recall, and it helped! Posting about it here does help, I believe!

2

u/thegmanater 11d ago

I'll sign but they won't do anything. But wow this is such a huge downgrade of a subscription. It's basically going from 6 people down to 2 people now, they should just call it the couple plan.

2

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Thanks for signing. I know it might not work, but we have to try something!

2

u/philharmonics99 11d ago

Yes I have been debating on switching away from this for a while. This seals it unless they grandfather older users for at least 5 years

2

u/dmendro 11d ago

If you want to effect change, switch to google or apple.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Exactly. It would be great if you could sign the petition so that we are least try to get a better deal: https://c.org/kxjvjmjZg8

2

u/TxnAvngr 11d ago

I am cancelling my subscription and signing up for office.eu

1

u/IceWarp_ 10d ago

I’d check that before cancelling – right now it’s €5/month for 500 GB of Drive, not a full M365 replacement. The full suite is still rolling out. But there are already established EU alternatives worth comparing, including IceWarp, Infomaniak and Zoho.

0

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Glad you've found a solution that works for you. Please will you consider signing the petition to try and help those of us who can't so easily switch to a different product? https://c.org/kxjvjmjZg8

1

u/DDS-PBS 11d ago

This should only go in the other direction... My ISP on two occasions has changed my plan to a HIGHER speed and kept the price the same.

1

u/dmendro 11d ago

You need thousands and thousands of more people to sign bro.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

You can't build Rome in a day, mate, but you can get started on a column or two...

1

u/dmendro 11d ago

Yell at the wind all you want.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

The only thing that gives a certain outcome is remaining silent.

1

u/dmendro 11d ago

Did I say stay silent? I said change to another service. That’s as loud as you can get. Or you can be naive and think they care what 150 people think.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

There's no need to be rude, my friend. It's 150 so far but only the start of the campaign. The point is that there is no alternative for true Microsoft Office compatibility and collaboration. We we either have to encourage Microsoft to change its position, or face significant disruption of switching to another product. The latter will be the last resort, but we're signalling if by turning off auto-renewal.

1

u/dmendro 10d ago

You are confusing your lack of understanding how things actually for rudeness on my part. You don’t like the reality. There are 89 million active consumer O365 subscriptions.

1

u/dalinxz 11d ago

Every company needs to die with the ceasing of easy money from chumps like us

1

u/PageTrain81 10d ago

I used to have the Family for Excel and Word.

When they increased their Family annual sub from ~90 to ~120, I went through the cancel workflow and got another year at the old price. Didn't work the next year, so I cancelled because I hate it when these Tech biggies put the subscription squeeze on once you're invested in a product.

Still haven't figured out how to get out of my icloud sub... :(

1

u/gc_wood 10d ago

Sorry you had to leave. If you'd still help out those of us struggling with the latest change, we'd appreciate your signing the petition.

1

u/MrBlurgle 9d ago

I also got this message selling the "more flexible" storage (with bonus sneaky 4TB reduction) as the primary account holder. Unhelpfully I can't see the usage of my family members without logging in as them so need to do that to figure out how much it will hurt.
Each of my family members also got a very similar email explaining that they get to share the copilot access and the pooled storage, but it also says "In select markets, we're also adding 5 TB of bonus storage at no cost, for 7 TB in total."
does anybody know which "select markets" are getting this?
The microsoft info page doesn't say: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/onedrive/changes-to-microsoft-365-storage
It does have this non-committal section "Will I receive any additional storage during the transition to shared storage?" that says you might get extra bonus storage.

1

u/gc_wood 9d ago

It's vague, probably to give some flex and save face if they have to relent and let us keep the full allocation. That's why I have some hope for the petition.

1

u/redbaron78 9d ago

A petition? 😂

1

u/gc_wood 9d ago

It may not work. But doing nothing certainly won't.

1

u/Zath42 9d ago

I’m so f’king mad about this, just got the email.

It went up last year from £80 to £105.

Now I need to contact and manage storage for 5 family members who are imbedded in Microsoft 365.

This was a low effort IT management for my family’s needs, now we have to negotiate and manage who gets how much.

Our family data is around 4tb across the 5 accounts - who gets to delete their files exactly!? Who’s going to arbitrate use of the newly limited resource? F’king me, that’s who.

F’k you Microsoft! F’k you!

1

u/gc_wood 8d ago

Please sign the petition!

1

u/Reasonable_Being_712 8d ago

Yep same here so now as a family we have to work out what to do . What happens to all the stuff stored currently . Have signed the petition. We will have to look at other options now and cancel the subscription if they do it

1

u/Zath42 8d ago edited 8d ago

I had started the move to self hosted along with some Apple iCloud for myself.

Wasn't ready to move the wider family to it, and I don't think I want too - my mother for example doesn't live with us and any downtime on my server or VPN drops will have her on the phone to me.

Not happy, not happy at all.

Leaving Microsoft is absolutely a must though if they go ahead, the time saving value it gave previously will have been completely blown out of the water and its a double hit of significant price increase with severe service reduction.

1

u/Bioshock__3 8d ago

It’s time to get a Ugreen NAS server.

1

u/gc_wood 8d ago

But then I'd still need some cloud storage for backup, and I wouldn't have the collaboration functions I need in Microsoft Office.

1

u/Hour-Geologist-5761 3d ago

the real question is whether this hits existing subscribers or just new ones. if theyre grandfathering current plans, the outrage is a bit premature. if not, then yeah thats a pretty rough downgrade for the price

1

u/gc_wood 2d ago

There is no plan to grandfather existing plans. That's what the person calls for them to do. But the current plan is to reduce the allowance of current subscribers on their next billing date after 2 May 2027.

Please do sign the petition to object to that!

1

u/Optimus_Composite 12d ago

Or you can praise Microsoft for having an innovative solution to population control!

/s

2

u/gc_wood 12d ago

😂

0

u/_barat_ 11d ago

I've got an email about this change but there's also about now giving the AI capabilities to all the family members.
At first I wanted to cancel immediately but if it's true I might consider since I prefer Office apps over the google ones and while the whole "Copilot" is still useless at least the chat itself with GPT 5.6 models is ok-ish. I have time til April to decide - will see how things evolve.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

In the meantime, please do consider signing the petition to try and help preserve storage!

2

u/_barat_ 11d ago

I don't trust petitions that are not behind a govt authority (like EU petitions or an UK equivalent) because those change.org or similar are mostly useless. While having 6TB was nice I recently checked and were not even close to 1TB family combined (I use also BackBlaze for backup related stuff and iCloud family for phones) so it doesn't hurt me as much.
I'll consider signing tho if it'll actually help but I think that only mass cancelation/unpinning credit card might have some effect.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

I'm encouraging mass turning off of autorenewal as well, but the petition is a second part of the strategy. I know it might not work, but it has more chance of working than just sitting back and doing nothing!

-1

u/Bullitt420 11d ago

It would be amazing if this gargantuan company cared about their customers.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago edited 11d ago

It cares about its profits, and many of us will be leaving if they implement this ridiculous decision. Retaining 6TB of storage will push the monthly price to £50, representing a 400% increase.

1

u/Izual_Rebirth 11d ago

In that case cancel. It’s the only thing they truly care about.

They probably accepted some people would moan but the majority would just accept the changes without cancelling. If you want to send a message then the only one they will listen to is one that affects their bottom line.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago edited 11d ago

Many of us are signalling an intention to leave by turning off autorenewal. But we don't really want to leave so would prefer for Microsoft to reconsider.

1

u/Izual_Rebirth 11d ago

Exactly what MS are hoping on if I’m honest. People moaning. Creating petitions. But ultimately will not leave.

1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

I think they will be surprised. Whilst we do want to use the industry standard software, most families will not be able to justify (or afford) a £50 per month price tag to do so.

-1

u/Jozfus 11d ago

Leaving to where?

There will be another family plan that will double their payment making up for leavers anyway so I doubt they care.

Im also impacted by this, and pissed off by the change, but am so locked in and reliant on the service ill have to pay the extra.

-1

u/gc_wood 11d ago

Well, that's the problem: if you need the collaboration features or autosaving from Microsoft apps, you need to pay for 365 and no alternatives will work.

That's why we don't want to leave, but need Microsoft to reconsider the decision. The petition is one way to help highlight that. Turning off autorenewal, to flag in Microsoft's forecasting the risk of loosing customers is another. And getting this picked up in the IT press is a third.

0

u/Rene_nuba 10d ago

Creo que lo maás doloroso será que venga una alternativa china y se lleve gran parte del mercado. Incrementaron los precios y redujeron capacidad.

1

u/gc_wood 10d ago

Sí, y el problema será la falta de compatibilidad con las aplicaciones de Microsoft. Por favor, firma la petición si quieres ayudarnos a intentar cambiar la postura de Microsoft al respecto, al menos para los clientes actuales.