Onedrive is dead, were do we go now?

[theefman]

You raise an important point--Google now stands above MS and Apple when it comes to free cloud storage. It stands to reason that the freebie crowd (who, if they are as financially strained as you indicate, also typically don't buy apps and other services) will use Google and MS/Apple won't be terribly disappointed by that. OP falls into that category. MS won't gnash their teeth over losing a customer who uses OneDrive for music storage but doesn't want to pay for either OneDrive or Groove.

Agreed. While they're at it why doesn't Microsoft get rid of all those freeloaders using outlook.com, Skype, OneNote, office on ios and android not to mention those 110+ million freeloading Windows 10 upgraders. Also free Gmail, web browsers, free WiFi from Starbucks should all be stopped and only paid access provided. That'll show all those freeloading scumbags. There is obviously no value in offering a free service to draw users to your offerings. /s

 

[Ten Four]

...not to mention those 110+ million freeloading Windows 10 upgraders.

The OneDrive move really does point to W10 subscription fees coming sooner rather than later.

 

[astondg]

That's one of the irksome things about this--why not tiers that are competitive with Google to give the phones a fighting chance? I would suggest something like 15GB free with the purchase of a phone, maybe 25GB with the purchase of a Windows 10 device, then tiers of 50GB, 100GB, 500GB, and 1TB. You also need higher tiers for power users.

I think the paid OneDrive tiers are competitive with Google, in fact I think OneDrive is the cheapest of the big players for 1TB. It's only the free tier that offers less than Google Drive now BUT it offers the same as Apple & more than Dropbox.

I think it's important to keep perspective about that and the features OneDrive offers. We also need to compare it to all the other players in the store game when determining it's value. It still looks like a competitive service to me.

 

[BobLobIaw]

To a certain extent, every customer is valuable.

For example, we say that Microsoft focused on low end for awhile to build market share. But why build a customer base on this premise?

Most Windows Phones in use today are low cost models. Their owners probably don't produce very much revenue for Microsoft. Microsoft was in the red right off the bat selling those phones at a loss.

How would you reconcile your statement with this?

Agreed every customer has at least some nominal value. The question is whether the cost outweighs the value. If 99.99% of the free users of OneDrive use less than 5GB, then they may only lose the most vociferous, indignant customers who likely profile as tight-fisted freebie hunters. I referenced OP for exactly that reason: if MS isn't getting any revenue from some guy storing music who pays for neither OneDrive or Groove then what's his value? I'm not saying there is anything wrong with those people, but it's certainly plausible that MS has calculated that the cost of being the leader in cloud storage isn't worth servicing that small segment of users that don't translate to dollars in other areas of business.

 

[BobLobIaw]

Agreed. While they're at it why doesn't Microsoft get rid of all those freeloaders using outlook.com, Skype, OneNote, office on ios and android not to mention those 110+ million freeloading Windows 10 upgraders. Also free Gmail, web browsers, free WiFi from Starbucks should all be stopped and only paid access provided. That'll show all those freeloading scumbags. There is obviously no value in offering a free service to draw users to your offerings. /s

I would certainly agree with your sarcasm if MS got rid of all free OneDrive storage. All they've done (outside of the obvious PR damage) is reduce the free level to that of Apple. It seems to me that MS wants to compete at the 1TB level instead. Reports are that almost all of the free users use 5GB or less so they are probably banking on the fact that there will just be a behavioral modification by most users rather than a mass exodus. We will see.

 

[Bryan Trach]

Or everyone could buy Office 365 and enjoy 1TB of OneDrive and the full Office suite

 

[OG Richie C]

I don't want it to be free. I pay for 200GB every month. I'm trying to give Microsoft money in exchange for a service, but they won't take it.


I think they're confused about what being "a devices and services company" means (or "cloud first, mobile first", if you prefer).

 

[OG Richie C]

Or everyone could buy Office 365 and enjoy 1TB of OneDrive and the full Office suite

had O-365 and found it to be a terrible problem - constant lag, constant crash. I quit, bought full Office (for $399), and am much happier. Now I wish people who bought real Office could also get 1TB, but we can't, so I'm willing to pay. But now I don't even have that option. Real stupid way to treat a loyal customer, MS.

 

[xandros9]

I don't want it to be free. I pay for 200GB every month. I'm trying to give Microsoft money in exchange for a service, but they won't take it.


I think they're confused about what being "a devices and services company" means (or "cloud first, mobile first", if you prefer).

I thought those on the 200 and 100 GB plans could keep their plans

 

[coconutxyz]

i wanted to sync my whatsapp and telegram folder from sd card to onedrive and i dont see that option...this is the first time i wanted to sync something to onedrive and i've hit a wall

 

[raycpl]

It's not much of a problem with Telegram cos its cloud base. Log in anywhere and the history will appear. Not sure what's the deal with WhatsApp. All the stuff is saved locally

 

[Burnnerman]

I didn't realize the difference between alive and dead is $2/month. Life is fragile.

Especially when you think that it is less than 1 cup of coffee.

 

[920Walker]

Especially when you think that it is less than 1 cup of coffee.

It's less than continuing a lost level of Sugar Crash Tonic Pops using IAPs.

 

[rhapdog]

MS won't gnash their teeth over losing a customer who uses OneDrive for music storage but doesn't want to pay for either OneDrive or Groove.

Exactly. Which is why they are no longer producing all the super-low-end Lumias. Introducing the 950 and 950XL is a start to attract a clientele that doesn't mind paying for things. Will it anger people who want free stuff? Absolutely. But their investors will be happy with higher returns on their stock.

Also, if google (Microsoft's competitor in not only cloud storage but also phone OS) offers 15gb free and MS offers only 5gb it takes value away from Windows phone.

Using that analogy, iPhone has no value. They only offer 5GB free as well. Try to tell that to an iPhone user and they will laugh you out of the building.

I'm not a freeloader but I'm also not a sucker and if I can get a better price I will. If I need more storage I will pay for it but I won't pay for 15gb when the competitor gives that much away for free. I think at minimum Microsoft should reward those who bought into their phone ecosystem with a reasonable amount of space to store there photos and music included. Just my 2 cents.

I'm one of the cheapest people alive, as far as "I won't pay for it if I can get it free or find a better deal somewhere else." However, I also have to balance quality and value with the price. Each person will have to judge if the quality/value/price meets his/her criteria.

For example, I can buy 6 different brands of bread flour at the local store. However, 4 of the brands produce unpredictable results because of the way they process it. The amount of gluten in those brands aren't stable, which means you won't get consistent results when baking. If I'm having to throw out 1 in 3 loaves of bread because of this, then 20% cheaper means nothing to me. The best value is the one that is consistent. (True story on the bread flour. Yes, I went to culinary school, among other things.)

Google does indeed offer 15GB free, and they offer unlimited photo storage. However, that unlimited photo storage is a type of storage where they compress your photos that you store online, causing the image quality to be reduced in a way that is unacceptable to me. They also get permission to use your photos through their Terms of Service. As someone who gets paid for some of the pictures he takes, that takes away a LOT of value for me. I don't take pictures for social media, so I need the highest quality photos that my device can produce.

However, Google Drive is a service that is quite acceptable for many. It just doesn't suit my needs, as I need more than 15GB, and I don't want my photos compressed.

MEGA is a fairly good option, but the founder left the company stating that the files stored there are no longer secure. I don't know the full details about all that, but it seems to be a concern. It's fairly new, and MEGA's predecessor was shut down by law enforcement. I'm just not sure if I want to trust them with my data.

had O-365 and found it to be a terrible problem - constant lag, constant crash. I quit, bought full Office (for $399), and am much happier. Now I wish people who bought real Office could also get 1TB, but we can't, so I'm willing to pay. But now I don't even have that option. Real stupid way to treat a loyal customer, MS.

There is zero difference between Office 365 and the full Office, as you say. Office 365 is the full office, with the exception that you get to continue to update to the newest version of the full Office every time a new one is released, like from 2010 to 2013 to 2016, etc.

If you were having those issues, and they went away when you bought the "full Office", then you had a bad download and install somehow. There is zero difference other than being able to keep up to date and not having to pay full price up front.

Especially when you think that it is less than 1 cup of coffee.

Not for me, really. I make my own coffee, and it costs me less than 3 cents per cup. Those coffee shops make a killing, don't they? It would take approximately 67 cups of coffee to pay for the 50GB per month, which for me is nearly 2 weeks worth of coffee. It's still cheap, though.

Since I am a user that needs Office anyway, I've got the Office 365, and plan to continue to pay for that. I have an additional 2 TB of storage on a web server that I lease for private use and unlimited bandwith on that private server. I pay much more for the private server than I do for Office 365, and the domains that I pay for upkeep on yearly have a combined price also higher than the Office 365 account.

 

[blue1k]

Glad my work pays for my Onedrive account.

 

[D4X]

on WP check out BitTorrent Sync setup your home PC and make your own fluffy clouds

 

[phxchristian]

It won't downgrade until 2016. And if you have Office 365, it will just decrease from unlimited to 1TB, not a big deal that everyone is making it out to be. I have Groove music and they also gave me 100GB free. I also have loyalty bonuses and a Bing rewards bonus as well. I don't think those expire until 2017 at least that's what it says on my OneDrive.

 

[OG Richie C]

There is zero difference between Office 365 and the full Office, as you say. Office 365 is the full office, with the exception that you get to continue to update to the newest version of the full Office every time a new one is released, like from 2010 to 2013 to 2016, etc.

If you were having those issues, and they went away when you bought the "full Office", then you had a bad download and install somehow. There is zero difference other than being able to keep up to date.

Maybe there's a difference between Office Pro and 365 (I use Access and Outlook daily). When opening OneDrive files with O-365 installed, it kept trying to default to the light web-based versions of Excel and Word rather than opening the full programs.

Furthermore I can get Office 2016 Pro for $9 through my govt job, so there's no incentive to pay that monthly for the lesser version.

Which brings me back to my original grievance: I pay monthly for 200GB OneDrive (I'm not asking for anything free, and I need personal OneDrive separate from my business, SharePoint-based OneDrive Pro account). This storage need will continue to grow over time, and I'm willing to pay more.

I don't get how MS is in the cloud storage business without cloud storage options for paying customers. Seems bizarre, since the alternative will be to push me into paying their competition.

 

[rhapdog]

Maybe there's a difference between Office Pro and 365 (I use Access and Outlook daily). When opening OneDrive files with O-365 installed, it kept trying to default to the light web-based versions of Excel and Word rather than opening the full programs.

My wife has Microsoft Office 2013 Professional. I have Office 365, which I recently upgraded to 2016 for no additional charge. Opening Office files acts exactly the same. It is possible that you did not install Excel and Word when you installed Office 365, as you can select which programs to install locally.

When I select Excel or Word files from my local Hard Drive, even if they are in my OneDrive folder, they open locally. If I am browsing with the OneDrive web site, it will open the files using the Online version. I have to choose to download the file. This is with either my Office 365 or my wife's installed Office 2013 Pro.

Having used Office 365 before the 2013 upgrade, I can tell you it is the same as the Office 2013 Professional edition in every way. It doesn't try to be online any more or less than the purchased version.

Furthermore I can get Office 2016 Pro for $9 through my govt job, so there's no incentive to pay that monthly for the lesser version.

If I had that benefit from a government job, I would certainly take advantage of it. Kudos.

Which brings me back to my original grievance: I pay monthly for 200GB OneDrive (I'm not asking for anything free, and I need personal OneDrive separate from my business, SharePoint-based OneDrive Pro account). This storage need will continue to grow over time, and I'm willing to pay more.

I don't get how MS is in the cloud storage business without cloud storage options for paying customers. Seems bizarre, since the alternative will be to push me into paying their competition.

MS is in the cloud business, but cloud storage for consumers, to them, is a negligible part of it, which they have proved by being nearly negligent of it. To them the cloud is BI, Azure services, Office apps in the cloud, etc. OneDrive, I believe in their eyes, is a "necessary evil" that they need to provide as a courtesy to their cloud customers as a way of making it easier to tie their cloud services together.

Their idea isn't to push you into paying the competition, but, rather, push you into Office 365. Well, I say that is THEIR idea. I didn't say it was a good idea.

Still, at the 1TB level, I haven't found better storage than OneDrive. The difference is, I don't really need much in the way of OneDrive. I can survive just fine on less than 5GB. However, I've got the 1TB. If I could get the full Office Pro for $9, I'd probably jump on it since I don't need the cloud storage.

 

[OG Richie C]

I believe in their eyes, is a "necessary evil" that they need to provide as a courtesy to their cloud customers as a way of making it easier to tie their cloud services together.

Their idea isn't to push you into paying the competition, but, rather, push you into Office 365. Well, I say that is THEIR idea. I didn't say it was a good idea.

Ah. That makes sense.

Not sure why they went through the effort of opening a retail chain of their intent is to balk at everyday consumers. Although perhaps Nadalla never would've made that decision.

With O-365, I had a full copy of Office Pro installed, then subscribed to 365 trial for the OneDrive increase. Maybe I'll try uninstalling my full version first and then installing 365. I still would prefer to subscribe just to 1TB of OneDrive, even if it cost me the same. Silly Microsoft.