OneDrive is full and Outlook stopped receiving email

What counts toward your Microsoft storage

Microsoft is clear: cloud storage includes your email attachments, files and photos in OneDrive. The free plan gives 5 GB. The mailbox itself (messages, contacts, calendar) has its own allowance, but the attachments count toward the cloud storage. That is why a OneDrive that backs up your folders can stop your email.

What happens when you are over the limit

You can no longer upload, edit or sync new files in OneDrive, such as new camera photos; existing files stay but become read-only. In Outlook.com you can no longer send or receive email, and messages sent to you bounce back to the sender.

If you stay over the limit for three months, Microsoft freezes your OneDrive account. After six months, Microsoft says it might delete your OneDrive and all the files in it. This is the moment to act, not to wait.

Option 1: pay for more space

Buying more storage or Microsoft 365 solves it immediately. It is the right choice if you want to keep everything in the cloud. Many people find out that the files filling OneDrive are their own Desktop and Pictures, which they never meant to send to the cloud.

Option 2: bring the files home and free the cloud

Make the files local ("Always keep on this device"), copy them to a folder outside OneDrive or to an external disk, check that the copy is complete, and only then delete them from OneDrive or stop the folder backup. Deleting first is the classic mistake: files you delete in OneDrive also leave your PC.

Mind drive C:. "Always keep on this device" stores every file on the PC first, so drive C: needs room for all of them: a 1 TB OneDrive does not fit on a 256 GB laptop drive. Go one folder at a time, or see the ways in back up OneDrive to an external drive.

Mistakes to avoid

Do not delete files to free space before you have a checked copy elsewhere. Do not empty the OneDrive recycle bin until the copy is verified. Do not move folders out of OneDrive by dragging: a move removes them from the cloud on every device, and online-only files are not even on the disk to be moved.

The "storage is almost full" email

Microsoft warns before it blocks anything: an email saying your Microsoft storage is almost full, and a notice in OneDrive and Outlook.com. That is the best moment to act, while you can still upload, send and receive. Do not delete in a hurry: copy first, check, then free the cloud.

Real email or scam?

Fake "storage full" emails are common, for OneDrive and for every other cloud. They push you to click a link, sign in or pay at once. You do not need to tell them apart by the look: never use the link in the email. Open your browser, sign in to your Microsoft account yourself and look at the storage page. If it does not say you are full, the email was fake: delete it. If it does, you have the real numbers in front of you.

The signs of a fake, and what to do if you already clicked, are in storage full email, real or scam.

If OneDrive asks "Delete these items?"

When many files leave the OneDrive folder on your PC at once, OneDrive can stop and ask "Delete these items?". While it asks, the files are already gone from the folder but still in the cloud. "Keep" (the button says how many items) puts them all back: in our tests, in about 10 seconds. "Delete all items" deletes them from the cloud and from every device. Leave "Don't ask again for large numbers of deletes" unticked: it is your last safety net.

Find out what is using your storage

Sign in to the storage page of your Microsoft account: it shows how much space OneDrive uses and how much the email attachments use. On onedrive.com you can sort your files by size and see the largest first. Very often the culprit is the Pictures folder, photos and videos from the phone in Camera Roll, or a Desktop full of downloads.

"Free up space" does not free your cloud storage

The "Free up space" command in File Explorer removes the local copy of a file and leaves it online-only. It gives you disk space on the PC, but the file is still in OneDrive and still counts toward the 5 GB. To free cloud storage, some files have to be removed from OneDrive, once you have a checked copy on your own disk. You keep using OneDrive for everything else.

What the two commands do, and what the cloud and check icons mean: Always keep on this device or Free up space.

Large email attachments

Because attachments count toward the cloud storage, deleting emails with large attachments in Outlook.com also frees space. Save the attachments you need to your PC first. Microsoft itself suggests this when the storage still looks full after a change.

If your account is already frozen

A frozen OneDrive shows "Account frozen" or the error code 0x8004def7. Free up space or buy more storage to unfreeze it; the change can take time to show. Microsoft says to contact support if the account is still frozen after 48 hours.

How Salvako does it for you

Salvako does these steps in the right order and shows you the numbers. The free Check reads, without changing anything, where every file really is, how many are online-only and how much space you need. The verified copy brings every file to the destination you choose and compares each copy with the original, by size and SHA-256 fingerprint. If the PC switches off, it resumes where it stopped.

Then the guardian keeps watch: it updates the copy and warns you when files become online-only again or the storage gets close to the limit. You keep using OneDrive as before, and your files never leave your PC.