You will be impacted by changes to storage limits and University Email Services 

Beth Varcho | June 10, 2024
image that represents email and digital storage

Ohio State is making changes to storage allowances for email, OneDrive, and Teams to ensure the university is managing these services with fiscal responsibility, as Microsoft changes pricing for education licensing. In addition, email account forwarding policies will be changed, resulting from both the Microsoft changes and from new security measures enacted by outside email vendors (such as Gmail, Yahoo!, etc.) that have caused inconsistent delivery.  

These changes will impact different users in different ways; affected users include: 

  • Current students 
  • Alumni and former students  
  • Current university employees – faculty and staff 
  • Current medical center employees – faculty and staff 
  • Retired employees who have retained access to email forwarding 
  • Dual-appointment university/medical center faculty and staff 
  • Sponsored guests for the university and the medical center 


The storage information here focuses on current university faculty, staff, and students. If you are not in one of these groups or if you want more comprehensive information, you can find it on the Storage and Email Transformation website located at go.osu.edu/MS365servicechanges2025.
 

New Storage Limits 

On June 1, 2025, new storage limits will become effective for current university faculty, staff, and students. For current university faculty, staff and students, limits will be:  

Current Students 

  • 100 GB Outlook email storage  
  • 100 GB OneDrive storage  

Current Employees: University Faculty and Staff 

  • 100 GB Outlook email storage  
  • 100 GB Online email archive storage  
  • 500 GB OneDrive storage  

Storage Changes in June 2025: 

  • After June 1, 2025, if your storage exceeds the limits, you will be unable to send emails and unable to save to OneDrive.  
  • University employees who exceed the required limits will be contacted via email to ensure they are aware that their storage must be reduced.  
  • University employees who exceed the required limits will incur additional costs for their department and the university. 
  • To see how much mailbox storage you've used, log on to Outlook for the Web and click on the Settings menu (the gear icon) at the top of the page. Select Settings > General > Storage.  You can also check OneDrive numbers online.
  • Teams and SharePoint files will also have storage limits, which we will communicate in detail in the coming months. 
     

Email Changes 

On Dec. 31, 2024, email account forwarding to outside email services will be discontinued. Excluding medical center name.#@osu.edu accounts that are forwarded to a @osumc.edu email account, forwarding will be prohibited for all Ohio State email accounts. 

Students can log in to BuckeyeMail to send and retrieve emails from their Ohio State account. If your course instructors use Carmen, check Announcements and Carmen Messaging to ensure you do not miss messages from your instructors. We recommend that students transition all accounts and contacts not related to the university to a personal email address instead of an Ohio State address. 

Because of this change, if you are a faculty or staff member in a department that regularly sends email messages to students, be sure you are not using their @osu.edu address. After Dec. 31, 2024, you must use @buckeyemail.osu.edu addresses to reach students. Likewise, if you email alumni regularly, you will eventually need a personal email (non-Ohio State) to reach these contacts. To prevent numerous areas of the university from contacting the same alumni on multiple occasions, the Alumni Association will take the lead on collecting this data to ensure colleges and departments can continue communicating with alumni who want to stay engaged with the university.  

Like other Microsoft 365 applications, email services for current students will continue for 2-years after graduation, beginning with those who graduated in May 2024. In the past we have offered various forms of ongoing email services for graduates, but alumni populations may be impacted differently depending on how they engage with our services. The Alumni Association will publish a website with information specific to alumni populations and will partner with us in corresponding with alumni in the coming months. In addition, we are working with The Office of Human Resources to sunset services for retirees with email for life. 
 

How Can I Reduce Storage? 

The storage information here focuses on current university faculty, staff, and students. If you are not in one of these groups or if you want more comprehensive information, you can find it on the Storage and Email Transformation website.  

Over the past several months, OTDI has published articles with tips for reducing and managing storage. We will continue promoting steps that users can take to reduce storage, including: 

OTDI will provide support and assistance throughout the transition period. University employees who exceed the required limits will be contacted via email to ensure they are aware that their storage must be reduced. Where it is appropriate and cost-effective, we can recommend storage alternatives for large caches of data that must be retained for research or other legal reasons. 

We are committed to ongoing support communication in the coming months to ensure awareness and to help everyone to find solutions for reducing storage, to use available storage appropriately, and to adhere to retention policies.  

More Information 

Our Storage and Email Transformation website contains more comprehensive information. The site will continue to be updated as more details become available and new questions arise. 

Learn More