How do I get more than 50GB OneDrive storage without buying Office 365

[mj0]

Is there any way to purchase a higher OneDrive storage tier without having Office 365 forced down my throat as well?

My wife is currently on the 50GB $2/month plan and very happy with it, but she will require more storage space very soon (around 200-300GB should do for a looooong time). It has to be OneDrive since she uses an application for work that only supports OneDrive and no other cloud storage provider. However, neither her nor me have even the slightest interest in Office 365 whatsoever. Like... none, zero, nada, zilch. She has to use Office 2010 for work for compatibility reasons, and I already own Office 2019 and Office 2016 through my own business. I also object to the idea of software subscriptions in general and boycott them whenever and wherever possible.

How do I go about purchasing a higher storage tier for her without also having to pay for an Office 365 subscription? Microsoft doesn't seem to be offering anything between 50GB and 1TB through Office 365. Is there really no other way?

 

[midnightfrolic]

I do not think there is another way. but you don't actually have to install Office 365. you do need to buy it's subscription


if you go to Office.com and sign into your Microsoft account and purchase office 365, it will automatically increase your OneDrive storage to 1tb. you don't have to install Office 365

 

[mj0]

I realize that, thank you. I still have to pay for it though, which is what I would prefer to avoid.

 

[TechFreak1]

I realize that, thank you. I still have to pay for it though, which is what I would prefer to avoid.

Referrals, is the other option.

Once you refer someone, they have to become an active user of onedrive. Once they are an active user they can refer others and so on.

 

[mj0]

Didn't Microsoft end the referral program a while ago? Based on my research they must've ended the free storage program somewhen in late 2017 or early 2018. Has it been reinstated since? Either way, she'd have to refer a lot of people to get from 50GB to 200GB given the 500MB increments per referral. Plus, I'm not looking for a free way to get more storage but rather a way to purchase additional OneDrive storage without having to subscribe to Office 365 at the same time.

But it seems like there is no way to do that, and if I require more than 50GB I am forced to subscribe to Office 365 against my will. Nice way to artificially boost Office subscriptions and use those numbers in the future to eliminate the perpetual Office license for good by claiming people prefer the subscription over the one-time license.

Not like this hasn't been done before *cough*Adobe*cough*Lightroom*cough*

 

[mj0]

Well, I bit the bullet and ended up subscribing to Office 365 due to lack of alternative. This is mostly likely going to be one of the few if not the only Office 365 subscription that will never see the installation of the included Office applications.

Thanks everybody for your input.