What You Need to Know about Changes to Storage Limits and Email Forwarding

In June we announced that Ohio State is making changes to storage allowances for email, OneDrive, and Teams. This is partly because Microsoft has made changes in pricing for education licensing, requiring us to make changes to ensure the university is fiscally responsible in managing these services. Automatic email account forwarding policies are also changing, resulting from both Microsoft changes and from growing problems caused by new security measures enacted by outside email vendors (such as Gmail, Yahoo!, etc.) that are increasingly causing 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. 
 

Email Changes  

On Dec. 31, 2024, automatic 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 don't miss messages from your instructors. We recommend that students transition all accounts and contacts not related to their work as a student at Ohio State to a personal email address instead of an Ohio State address.  

To streamline our email service and improve security, evenually we plan to discontinue lastname.#@osu.edu email addresses for students. While this change was planned for Dec. 31, 2024, stakeholder feedback prompted us to delay implementation while we consult with departments that regularly email students. We are working with system administrators to determine a timeline for updating applications to contact students at lastname.#@buckeyemail.osu.edu addresses.  

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.  

Because we have offered various forms of ongoing email services for graduates over the years, alumni populations will be impacted differently depending on how they engage with our services. The Alumni Association is sending email communications and posting information online for specific alumni populations. To prevent numerous areas of the university from contacting the same alumni on multiple occasions, the Alumni Association has taken the lead in asking for input about alumni email preferences and in collecting personal email addresses. The Alumni Association will work with colleges and departments to ensure they can continue communicating with alumni who want to stay engaged with the university.   

Changes to Maximum Message Size for Email 

Part of our efforts to modify email and storage services in response to changes in Microsoft's pricing model will include lowering the maximum size for email messages. 

Beginning on Monday, Sept.16, we will align limits so that all messages – sent to internal and external senders – must be 30MB or less. The current limit for internal messages is 150MB, which is the only limit that will be lowered. The current limit for sending attachments to external address and student name.#@osu.edu addresses is already set at 30MB, and it will not change. 

We recommend choosing “share a link” when you want to share end a file via email; do not choose “attach a copy.” Doing so will help all users keep their email storage lower and will avoid duplication of files in multiple OneDrive accounts. 
 

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 that may be passed on to individual users.  
• 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.  
   

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 located at go.osu.edu/MS365servicechanges2025. 

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:  

• Appropriate uses for OneDrive and Teams  
• Instructions for using online email archiving and retention (login required):  
• Read instructions for Outlook for Windows  or this video.  
• Read instructions for Outlook for Mac  or watch this video.  
• Read instructions for Outlook Web App (OWA) or this video.  
• Strategies for retention to follow university retention guidelines  
• Retention Schedules for specific records are searchable online through University Libraries.  
• University Libraries also has extensive information on managing emails.  

OTDI will provide support and assistance throughout the transition period. University employees whose storage currently exceeds the new required limits will be contacted via email over the next 10 months 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 be updated on an ongoing basis as more details become available and new questions arise.