Microsoft rolls out OneDrive to all users

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 19, 2014
Updated • Feb 19, 2014
Microsoft
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Microsoft's legal team seems to have issues verifying product names. After Microsoft ran into issues in regards to Metro for the new Windows 8 interface, it was also on the receiving end in regards to the company's cloud synchronization service SkyDrive.

The company announced that it would rebrand SkyDrive to OneDrive in the near future. The time has come apparently as Microsoft has started to roll out OneDrive to its worldwide audience.

This is a staged rollout, which means that you may not see the new interface yet on the web. If that is the case, you may still be taken to the OneDrive preview page.

The applications on the other hand have all been rebranded to OneDrive. If you still have the old SkyDrive application installed, head over to the official app store of your device and download the latest OneDrive version to get the update.

The most recent version of OneDrive for Android ships with several improvements. It is now possible to use the application to upload photos or videos automatically to OneDrive.

Support for Office Mobile and OneNote have been improved, with the editing of documents mentioned specifically in the context.

Last but not least, the app displays thumbnails in a larger resolution and offers an improved photo view as well.

One of the new features of OneDrive is that you can gain free storage to your account. When you run the app you are asked if you want to enable photo upload. If you do, you get an extra 3 Gigabyte of storage. Some users reported that they have not received the extra Gigabytes yet even though they enabled the upload functionality. I can confirm that as I have not received the extra space after enabling the feature as well.

Another option to get additional storage is to invite friends and contacts to OneDrive. You get 500 Megabytes of free storage for each referral up to a maximum of 5 Gigabytes.

As far as paid storage is concerned, the pricing is as follows:

  • 50 Gigabytes of extra storage for €19 per year
  • 100 Gigabytes of extra storage for €37 per year
  • 200 Gigabytes of extra storage for €74 per year

There is also a special offer for 20 Gigabytes of extra space and a Office 365 Home Premium subscription for €99.

Here is Microsoft's announcement video celebrating the launch of OneDrive.

Existing SkyDrive customers can use their data to sign in on the OneDrive.com website and in any of the OneDrive applications.

We will update the article with additional information once they become available. You can read about the announcement on the official OneDrive blog here.

Update: The web interface is now live as well. Not many changes there though besides the new address which is now http://onedrive.live.com/.

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Comments

  1. Peter, Ilkley, England said on February 20, 2014 at 7:44 pm
    Reply

    I currently pay £16 per year for 50GB extra storage (57GB) in total so was very pleasantly surprised today to find that as of the 19th of this month I have been given an extra 100GB (yes 100GB) for free for the next 12 months giving me 157GB in total to now play with. I wonder has anyone else had this.

    1. Sylvio Haas said on February 20, 2014 at 10:41 pm
      Reply

      If you use these 157 GB, what will you do when the 13th month arrives? Are you prepared to pay more or are you going to retrieve what you have stored in these extra 100 GB?

      1. Peter, Ilkley, England said on February 21, 2014 at 2:44 am
        Reply

        My plan is to not renew my 50GB subscription when it comes up for renewal in July this year – saving me £16 – leaving me with 107 GB of which 80GB will probably be used (which accounts for all my data – both important and otherwise – save music, movie and drive images which are too large to upload at 500Gb all in). I’ll then pay for 100Gb storage (currently £32/yr) from there on in as I also currently do with the hubiC cloud storage service. hubiC seems very good thus far in the short time I’ve been using it by the way as well as been very cheap at only £1 per month for 100GB (so thanks to Ghacks for giving me the heads up about it).

  2. ilev said on February 19, 2014 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft’s legal team still seems to have issues verifying product names. Microsoft will lose OneDrive name as well.
    One.com which runs a cloude service demands Microsoft to change its new OneDrive name service.

    ..Cloud Drive has been the jewel in One.com’s crown for the past three years, and company COO Thomas Medard Frederiksen isn’t too pleased with Microsoft’s decision to name their service after One.com’s own. “OneDrive, from Microsoft, is a similar product with a similar name, that will lead to confusion,” Mr. Frederiksen told popular Microsoft enthusiast blog Neowin today.

    http://www.besttechie.com/2014/01/29/microsoft-under-scrutiny-over-new-onedrive-name/

  3. Dante said on February 19, 2014 at 5:14 pm
    Reply

    Another advantage of the OneDrive and Google Drive is that you can easily open your data to NSA perusal. Highly efficient in flashing your private … items to strangers.

    1. ilev said on February 19, 2014 at 7:03 pm
      Reply

      I think that in this regard Microsoft has the edge over Google, as Microsoft voluntarily gives every bit of data you have on it’s cloud services, Azur, OneDrive, Office 360,… mail (including encryption keys), all skype data (voice and messages)… to the NSA. All this even if are not an US citizen or the data in not on US soil.
      Microsoft was the first to jump willingly on the NSA wagon.

      1. Dante said on February 20, 2014 at 5:54 am
        Reply

        To InterestedBystander: that’s why I have been very vocal about the security idiocy of “clouds” since clouds first started. It’s just a guaranteed way of losing your company secrets. Really stupid for really stupid people that pay very little money when hiring IT drones (not talents, drones).

      2. InterestedBystander said on February 19, 2014 at 11:16 pm
        Reply

        ilev, while I’m no admirer of Microsoft or of cloud storage, I admit I have not seen evidence showing that MS makes all data in OneDrive or Azure available to security agencies. The reports I’ve seen show that MS complies with laws in various countries by rendering a limited amount of data in response to specific requests. Same goes for Google, Facebook, et al.

        All data transfer is imperiled by electronic snooping, regardless of destination or storage provider. I think that Microsoft has, over the years, been responsible for some shocking software vulnerabilities as well as some coercive business practices. I don’t think they are openly shilling for the NSA or GHCQ, though.

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