Microsoft is introducing storage limits for M365 services that will affect Microsoft applications and user accounts at Colorado State University. A plan has been developed by a CSU committee to ensure continued service access and to establish a process for allocating and managing the remaining capacity, and for growing additional capacity.
Applicable to: Fort Collins, Pueblo, Spur, System
Affiliation: Students, Faculty, Staff, Guests
Details
Changes happening in December 2024 - September 2025
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New users: New email and OneDrive accounts will be created with 5 GB quotas each. Most existing email and OneDrive accounts consume less than 5 GB already.
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Existing users: Existing email and OneDrive quotas will be adjusted: they will be updated to their current usage plus an additional 5 GB of storage space. The application of OneDrive quotas was pushed back from the initial January start point, but when applied they will still be +5GB of then-current usage level.
A focus shift: departmental storage
Email and OneDrive are tied to a person's NetID account and are considered personal storage -- these items will experience slowed storage-growth.
Separately, shared resources such as SharePoint sites and Teams have delegated/shared management (with distributed IT resource coordinators), and are not restricted for future growth.
Applying leaner quotas to personal storage categories allows the university to focus its remaining storage capacity towards these shared resources. Quotas available to new and existing Teams and SharePoint sites will remain generous and can still be expanded up to Microsoft limits.
The IT community has been made aware of this part of the committee recommendation and a plan to allocate the remaining storage among organizational units is in place.
Option: Reduce storage
Even though no user's email or OneDrive storage quotas will be cut below their current usage plus a small cushion, by working together to reduce or trim unneeded items, we will increase the available storage to be used for current teaching, research, learning, and other university business. Those interested can explore the below topics.
To expand on the above mention of the new focus on departmental storage, resource coordinators throughout the CSU System are empowered to create shared, locally managed storage solutions in SharePoint and Teams. These objects can have more than 1 terabyte of storage, and are worth exploring for homing data sets and other large items still within our M365 ecosystem. It is possible IT departments also have access to local physical or cloud storage that they directly manage, and the Research-focused large storage system RStor may also be available. Please work with your area's IT professionals to explore options for holding and managing your largest files.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- Q: Why do my coworker and I have different quotas?
- A: Since each quota was assigned as a fixed value above current use, each quota is different.
- Q: I only have one powerpoint file, and it is not big, but my OneDrive says it is full, can you help?
- A: OneDrive has automatic version-saving, so large files such as PPT with images/videos which are edited often can accrue many dozens or hundreds of saved backups. Please create a ticket at the help desk if this is happening to you.
- Q: I deleted a bunch of contents but my storage value didn't go down and my OneDrive/email is full, can you help?
- A1: The OneDrive deleted items folder or recycle bin does not empty for 90+ days, if you are completely sure you can empty this resource to free up space.
- A2: Users under a litigation hold as ordered by the Office of General Counsel have special restrictions on deleting, if you think this may be the case please create a ticket at the help desk.
- Q: Does the 'Archive' folder inside my Outlook program count against my storage-usage?
- A: Yes. The Archive folder in Outlook is a storage location for older or less frequently used emails, and items in it still count toward your mailbox storage quota.
Reports
This project is being administered by the Microsoft System Operations (MSOPS) team.
If you have questions regarding the implementation of this project you can reach out to them at msops@colostate.edu.
If you have questions regarding how to manage the storage of your account, please refer to Safely and effectively managing storage in your M365 account.