Fury at unpopular OneDrive change causes Microsoft to backtrack on photo storage rules

After receiving a whole load of negative feedback around an incoming change to OneDrive, Microsoft has reversed direction on the move.

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OneDrive users were very unhappy about Microsoft's proposed change to photo storage space (Image Credit: Microsoft)

The idea was a simple one, but it could have had a major impact on the available storage for photos in the case of some users.

As Neowin spotted (via TechRadar), Microsoft had contacted OneDrive users and told them in an email that: "Soon, data from photos saved in your Gallery and in your albums will each count separately against your total Microsoft storage quota."

You can guess why this wasn't a popular idea, seeing as that it potentially means any given photo could be counted twice (or more) in diminishing your available OneDrive storage - the original pic uploaded (synced) to the Gallery, and then any other copy stuck in an album.

Conceivably, if you have the same photo in multiple albums, what is technically one image could occupy three or four times the space it should, or more.

This new rule was set to come into play next week, but Microsoft has thankfully abandoned the idea.

The software giant informs us:

"This change was scheduled to start rolling out on October 16, 2023. Based on the feedback we received, we have adjusted our approach, we will no longer roll out this update."

That's good news, then, but it was a bit strange that Microsoft even tried to make this change in the first place, as it doesn't make a lot of sense to us, and was clearly going to annoy OneDrive users.