OneDrive and Teams: Managing Storage

Overview

Due to increased costs from Microsoft, OTDI is reducing limits on OneDrive and Teams storage quotas effective June 1st, 2025.

This is part of OTDI's Storage and Email Transformation Project. From their project page there are links to documentation and FAQs. This is a summary article and there is a large amount of OTDI documentation linked at the end.

Contents

• Storage Limits
• Finding Total OneDrive Usage
• Finding Usage for OneDrive Folders in OneDrive Online
• Finding Usage for an Entire Team Online in SharePoint
• Finding Usage for Teams Folders Online in SharePoint
• Using the Windows Desktop Interface for Folder Size in OneDrive and Teams
• Finding More Storage
• External Documentation

Storage Limits

Consequences of Exceeding Limits

When these limits are exceeded, no new content will be able to be saved.

This can create issues when using Auto Save to OneDrive / Teams as many Microsoft 365 tools default to Auto Save.

Limits

Effective June 1st, 2025, Microsoft 365 Storage Limits will be:

Finding Total OneDrive Usage

OneDrive

• Right click the blue cloud icon in the task bar (Windows) or Menu Bar (Mac), and open Settings.
• At the lower left you will see a line about usage.
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• If you click on the Manage Storage, OneDrive Online will open in a browser with a list of your largest files.
  • Note, if you aren't logged in to Microsoft 365 in the browser already, you will land on an odd page.
  • Click Manage Storage a second time to open the largest files page.

Total usage is also in the lower left corner in OneDrive Online.

Finding Usage for OneDrive Folders in OneDrive Online

Using the online interface is the same for all platforms.

• Open OneDrive online: right click the blue cloud icon in the task bar (Windows) or Menu Bar (Mac), and click View online.
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• You will be prompted to login with your OSU credentials.
• Once online click My files in the upper left.
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• The main window should now look like the top level of your OneDrive folder.
• Click the three dots on a folder ... and then Details.
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• This will open a sidebar with the size at the very bottom. Scroll to the bottom or click on More details. The size will be at the bottom.
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  • 
• In a very active folder, the size will be at the end of the activity feed

Finding Usage for an Entire Team Online in SharePoint

Using the online interface is the same for all platforms.

• In the Teams app go to the Team whose usage you wish to see.
• Click on any channel and the ​​​​​Files tab.
• Click the three dots ..., then Open in SharePoint.
  • 
• You will be prompted to login with your OSU credentials.
• The main window should now look like the top level of your Teams channel folder.
• Click on the Gear upper right and select Site Contents.
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• Click on the Site Settings gear.
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• Click on Storage Metrics under Site Collection Administration.
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• The Documents line should be the largest and this is the files usage.
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  • There is also a usage bar in the upper right.
  • Note, this image was taken before storage reduction.

Finding Usage for Teams Folders Online in SharePoint

Using the online interface is the same for all platforms.

• In the Teams app go to the channel whose files you wish to see.
• Click on the Files tab.
• Click the three dots ..., then Open in SharePoint.
  • 
• You will be prompted to login with your OSU credentials.
• The main window should now look like the top level of your Teams channel folder.
• Click the three dots on a folder ... and then Details.
  • 
• This will open a sidebar with the size at the very bottom. Scroll to the bottom or click on More details. The size will be at the bottom.
  • 
  • 
• In a very active folder, the size will be at the end of the activity feed.

Tips

• Selecting Documents in the left sidebar will show channels as folders, which can be queried for size.
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Using the Windows Desktop Interface for Folder Size

Unfortunately this does not work reliable on MacOS.

From the OneDrive Desktop Sync App for Individual Folders

While knowing total usage and largest files can be useful, often it is best to see what folders are largest in order to prune them.

• Right click the blue cloud icon in the task bar, and Open folder.
• From your OneDrive you can right click and select properties.
  • Note, this will not download files so it will not use more space on the computer.
• Look at the Size entry for total size in the cloud vs. Size on disk which is downloaded (cached) items.
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From the OneDrive Desktop Sync App for Individual Teams Folders

Channel Files and sub-folders you sync from Teams to your desktop using the Sync option (recommended) or Add shortcut to OneDrive option (sub-optimal) can be sized just like the individual OneDrive folders.

Note: Folders cannot be both sync'd and shortcutted from the same Team. One method must be chosen. (We prefer the sync vs shortcut as then it is clearer which folders come from a Team and which come from the individual OneDrive storage. But both work, and the one advantage to the shortcut method is it will appear on all machines with the OneDrive client. Sync has to be done on each machine, but this does allow not syncing on every machine.)

For Teams Sync Folders:

• Find the The Ohio State University folder in Explorer.
  • This is at the top level of your home directory, e.g. C:\Users\name.#\The Ohio State University.
• From your OneDrive you can right click and select properties.
  • Note, this will not download files so it will not use more space on the computer.
• Look at the Size entry for total size in the cloud vs. Size on disk which is downloaded (cached) items.
  • 

For Teams Shortcuts in OneDrive:

• Right click the blue cloud icon in the task bar, and Open folder.
• From your OneDrive you can right click and select properties.
  • Note, this will not download files so it will not use more space on the computer.
• Look at the Size entry for total size in the cloud vs. Size on disk which is downloaded (cached) items.
  • 
  • Note the link item denoting a shortcut.

Finding More Storage

If reducing storage is not feasible, there are some options for data storage.

Please use OSU's Storage Finder Application to explore the possibilities or put in a ticket. Note, you can limit to ASC offerings in the Storage Finder.

External Documentation 

OTDI has a large amount of documentation and training in the Administrative Resource Center. (OSU login required.)

OTDI's project page for the Storage and Email Transformation Project has much more information, an FAQ, and links to specific help pages.

Their June 10, 2024 news post introduces the project, as well as their September 9, 2024 news post expanding information on 'what you need to know'.