Over the years, we have increasingly used the different cloud storage services that we have at our disposal. Many companies offer us space on their servers so that we can store our own content remotely. OneDrive, the proposal of this type that Microsoft presents to us, serves as a clear example of all this.
As you can imagine, this is not the only cloud service available at the moment, we have many more, even free. To give you an idea, these companies that we are talking about usually offer us a space at no cost but somewhat limited. If the time comes when we want to extend it, that is when we will have to start paying a fee for your rental. This is something that happens with the aforementioned Microsoft OneDrive just by creating a free account of the firm.
However, if, for example, we pay a subscription to use the Microsoft 365 office suite, this space available for our personal use increases up to one tera. The first thing we must take into consideration is that here we are talking about a remote space, that is, reserved on the company's servers. Therefore, all this will help us to save a good amount of space locally on our computer. But of course, it may be the case that at a certain moment our subscription to Microsoft 365 ends.
In parallel, we will still have a multitude of files and folders stored in our mentioned storage space. That is why, in this situation, many users wonder what will happen to all that information stored in the cloud.
Do I lose my OneDrive data when Microsoft 365 ends?
It is possible that a priori we may think that, if we haven't made a backup copy of this data, we will lose it. That is, in the event that we have not downloaded all the files saved or shared in our OneDrive account before ending the subscription to Microsoft 365, we lose them the moment we stop paying. Although perhaps for many it would be logical, or for certain companies, in reality Microsoft does not act that way.
To give us an idea of what would happen in this case, say that if we stop paying for the subscription to Microsoft 365 we will still have access to our files and folders. Of course, this will happen, but with certain restrictions. Specifically, we will have the possibility to view, share and download the files that we had stored in the OneDrive service. For example, this will allow us to make a backup copy to another location of all this content before it is lost. In the same way, we can share them with others so that they can download what interests them if necessary, at least for 12 months.
However, what we will not be able to do is load more files. At least until we renew the subscription by paying its price. In addition, as the Redmond company itself informs us, in the event that a long time passes without us renewing the subscription, our account will be immobilized. This will mean that we will no longer even have access to these files and folders until we renew the subscription in the future.