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New storage limits for Microsoft 365  

Effective Monday, March 31, Microsoft is implementing a storage limit for Microsoft 365 across OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange email for all educational institutions, including York University.

This means that faculty, staff and students will have limits on the amount of space available for storing files and information.

New storage limits for faculty and staff   

  • OneDrive: 200 GB   
  • Teams/SharePoint: 1 TB per site   
  • Exchange/Outlook: No change to existing quotas, but a new archiving policy will automatically move emails that are more than two years old to an archive mailbox.  

Archive mailboxes do not count towards your storage quota and are easily accessible on Windows, Mac and Outlook Web Access (OWA). Microsoft Support offers information about managing email storage with online archive mailboxes

New storage limits for students  

  • OneDrive: 50 GB   
  • Teams/SharePoint: 1 TB per site   
  • Exchange: /Outlook: No change to the existing email storage quota. 

Next steps 

Most people will be unaffected by this change. Nonetheless, you are encouraged to review your storage to understand how much you are using and delete or archive files no longer in use (see link below for more details). Anyone who is over the quota will be contacted directly.  

Once the new limits are in place, the system will send a warning notice to anyone who is using 90 per cent of their storage capacity and a second warning when their storage is full. Anyone who exceeds their storage capacity (OneDrive, Teams and Outlook) will not be able to add new files until they have removed or deleted content.  

What if I need more storage?   

UIT is actively exploring paid options for individuals and departments with higher data requirements, to allow for expanded storage where needed without affecting overall storage limits. Details on these options will be provided in the coming weeks. 

Learn more 

Learn how to manage your OneDrive storage through this helpful guide: Managing Your OneDrive Storage

If you have any questions or need assistance, contact USC Client Services at askit@yorku.ca or call 416-736-5800.   

Take Note

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