Microsoft OneDrive is best known due to its function as an online storage device for works the user completes within the Microsoft family of applications. A cloud storage system, OneDrive has garnered popularity due to its immense capacity for files, something that is definitely a necessity in modern storage systems.
You are often told by Microsoft that, normally, you can get up to 5GB of storage within your Microsoft OneDrive. This however is something that can most definitely be edited, as is suggested by the title of the article. Chances are, if you are reading this today, then increasing the storage space of your OneDrive is something you are interested in doing.
Thankfully, there is a means by which you can edit the storage limit of your OneDrive, and it entails entering the SharePoint admin center and editing the storage settings there.
Now, if this alone is not enough detail for you to work with, don’t worry, how could it be? As such, we will be breaking this method down in two separate ways. First, we will be offering you a step by step guide through the process, a bullet pointed list offering you a quick solution to the problem at hand. This will be enough for some, I’m sure, but will of course not be enough for many.
In that case, if you don’t get enough information from the steps offered, then read on, as following the list will be a complete breakdown of the process. It will be a detailed walkthrough, complete with accompanying screenshots in order to offer you, the reader, as much aid as we possibly can.
DISCLAIMER: In order to follow this tutorial, you will need to have access to the Microsoft Admin Center. To have this, you must be a global admin, which you may well not be. In order to rectify this, you would be best speaking to your local provider, as they are most likely the closest you would get to gaining that access level.
Step by step: How to increase a user’s OneDrive storage limit to 5TB
- Access Microsoft Admin via the application launcher of any Microsoft product.
- From here, look to the listing menu on the left hand side of your screen.
- At the bottom of this list there should be an option that reads, ‘Show All’. Click this.
- Now, you should be able to see an option to access the SharePoint admin center which is what you should click.
- From here, on the left sided menu, click the subheading titled ‘Settings’.
- Scroll until you find the setting labelled ‘Storage limit’ and click on it.
- This should bring a popup menu up on your screen, towards the right hand side.
- It will offer you a box in which you can type a storage limit of anywhere up to 5TB.
- Enter the amount you wish, and click ‘Save’ to save your changes.
So, your first step, as was mentioned above, will be to access Microsoft Admin. Now, whilst you may be comfortable accessing this manually, there is another way by which you can login to your Microsoft Admin center.
Simply login to any Microsoft application, such as Outlook. From the main menu, look towards the top left corner and click the logo that sits there. This should open a menu from which you can select Microsoft Admin. Should you need further assistance, it has been highlighted in the below screenshot.
From the Microsoft Admin center, you should look to the left of the screen and see a list of different subtabs, each containing their own specific section of options within the Admin center. At the very bottom of this list should be an option that reads, ‘Show All’. Click this.
Clicking ‘Show All’ will, unsurprisingly, show you all the options available to you. Under the subheading ‘Admin Centers’, where it once showed only one option, it will now show several. Of these newly listed options, you will want to click ‘SharePoint’ which, again, has been highlighted below.
Now you will be at the SharePoint Admin Center. Again, to the left hand side, there is a list of subsections to this very admin center. There will be a tab called ‘Settings’ which is the one you will want to click.
Clicking ‘Settings’ will show you a list of the editable settings of your SharePoint. You may need to scroll through the list, you may not, but you need to be looking for the setting labelled ‘Storage limit’. As always, there is a highlighted screenshot below should you need further assistance in finding the topic.
Clicking ‘Storage limit’ will open a small menu to the right hand side of your screen, on which will be a box in which you can enter a storage limit for your OneDrive. It will be defaulted to 1024 GB, as you will be able to see in the below screenshot.
Also on the below screenshot, the button ‘Save’ is highlighted, and it is this that you will want to click after you have entered an amount of storage you wish to limit your OneDrive to.
Now, whilst this may be enough for some, this limit is capped at 5TB. If you wish to increase your storage past this boundary, then that is understandable, but is not something you will be able to do within Microsoft Admin. Instead, you will have to install PowerShell.
PowerShell can allow you to expand your storage to up to 25TB, an incredibly large amount, especially in comparison to the 5TB SharePoint offers, which now seems somewhat measly.
First, you will want to download the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell. After doing this, you will want to save the script below as a PowerShell file:
After this, open the Online Management Shell and, in the location you saved it, run the script. You will eventually be prompted to enter the SharePoint admin center URL of your workplace. Do this, and sign in as either a global or SharePoint admin.
Enter the OneDrive site URL, and then enter storage quota, followed by the quota warning level, in MB.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, I hope you found it as helpful as you wanted it to be! As always, if you encounter any issues when following this tutorial, or simply wish to ask us some questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of our team.