New OneDrive Storage Limits - Information Technology Services

In response to Microsoft’s changes in global storage limits for educational institutions, new storage limits will take effect on July 15, 2025. As part of this update, all faculty will be provided with 100GB of OneDrive storage. We need your help to reduce our Microsoft storage footprint and better optimize our Microsoft environment ahead of this change.

Faculty, staff members and students will be subject to these new storage limits by July 15, 2025.

All users must remove all personal files and reduce their storage within the limits stated below.

What You Need to Know

OneDrive Storage Limits: The new limits are displayed in the table below. Your new OneDrive storage limit corresponds to your role with the university.

Service	Role	Limit
OneDrive	Faculty and Staff	100 GB
OneDrive	Students	10 GB

Action Required: You will receive an email if your OneDrive account exceeds your storage limit. The email will ask you to delete files until you are below your limit by July 15, 2025.

How to Reduce Storage: Please start by reviewing your OneDrive contents and removing the following file types:

Personal files (photos, videos, documents, etc.)
Copyrighted content (movies, music etc.)
Redundant or duplicate files
Records past retention as listed in the Carleton University Retention Schedule

How Can You Check Your Current OneDrive Storage Usage and Delete Files?

Our recommended method for managing and reducing OneDrive storage is listed below, and Microsoft’s guides on how to check OneDrive storage and delete files and folders are available at the bottom of this page.

Log in to office.com with your Carleton credentials
Click on the app launcher waffle icon in the top-left corner of your screen
Select ‘OneDrive’ from the app list
Click your current storage usage in GB to see the largest files in your OneDrive
Delete files you no longer need, or personal and/or copyrighted files
After deleting files, click ‘Empty your recycle bin’
Your recycle bin will be cleared
At the bottom of the page, find the text that reads ‘Can’t find what you’re looking for? Check the Second-stage recycle bin.’
Click ‘Second-stage recycle bin’
Click ‘Empty recycle bin’ to permanently delete unneeded files

What Kinds of Files Can You Store?

Please be reminded that storage should only be used for academic purposes and official university business. All personal files must be removed. Users are responsible for adhering to the Acceptable Use of Information Technology and Email policy, the Corporate Records and Archives Policy, the Fair Dealing Policy and all applicable copyright laws in their storage practices.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We appreciate your cooperation in ensuring uninterrupted access to OneDrive services.

Who Can You Contact If You Have Questions?

If you have questions, please open a Microsoft 365 Storage ticket using this form.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I put my files?

We think that most of the reductions can be made by removing personal files, redundant files, copyrighted files and files that have exceeded the university’s retention schedule.

Personal files should be moved to personal storage solutions such as physical drives, personal cloud services like Google Drive, etc.

For faculty researchers who store research data in OneDrive, there are alternative storage methods such as Research ShareFile and the Digital Research Alliance.

Why is my storage limit still showing 5TB?

Though the university’s official limits have changed, OneDrive may show the old limits for a few days after we announced the change. This is because our automation software takes time to apply the change. If you are over these limits, you will need to reduce your storage by July 15.

What happens if I can’t reduce my storage below the limit by July 15?

After July 15, your OneDrive will be put into a read-only state, meaning that you can read and delete files, but you cannot add files. You will have one week to delete files and get your OneDrive under the limit, after which time we reserve the right to move all of your files into a storage solution of our choosing. Your ability to access your  files may be impacted and you may require support from ITS to retrieve them.

What if my limit is not enough for my needs?

These limits were set after a careful analysis of Carleton’s storage use, the storage environment and new costs based on Microsoft’s licensing model. They are similar to those applied at other Canadian universities.

Should you wish to bring forward a use case that requires more storage than allocated, please complete this form. The information you provide will help us develop scenarios and understand usage needs. In the coming months, we hope to provide community members with long-term solutions to meet their needs. Until then, we are unable to provide additional storage.

Useful Resources

Delete files or folders in OneDrive – Microsoft Support
Manage your OneDrive for work or school storage – Microsoft Support

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