Use your storage in OneDrive and Outlook effectively

Use this guide to understand how much storage you’re using today and to help manage your stored files moving forward.

03 Apr 2024

Storage limits are in place for OneDrive and Outlook

Soon, Trinity will have limits on how much storage can be used for storing files and information in OneDrive and Outlook.

Most of you will not see any impact from this change, however, this does mean that you’ll need to review your storage to understand how much you are using today and work to delete or archive files no longer in use.

Checklist for managing storage effectively:

Check your storage and pay attention to any warnings that your storage is nearly full
Delete or move files you’re not using anymore in OneDrive, such as:
- Old or unnecessary files (like assignments from last year’s classes)
- Large files you don’t need anymore (like videos)
Delete or move items you’re no longer using in your inbox to an archive mailbox in Outlook
Store your personal files separately from school files, such as music, by saving them to your personal OneDrive instead
Move any personal files already saved to your school’s OneDrive to your personal account

How to use less storage in OneDrive

First, review how much storage you are using:

Open OneDrive, then choose Settings > OneDrive settings > More settings > Storage metrics. Then, select Documents and clean up your files!

Sort by file size or date last modified to identify large and older files you may want to delete to free up space. Then, empty your deleted items folder.

How to use less storage in Outlook

First, open Outlook using Microsoft 365 online (office.tcd.ie):

Next, check your storage and clean your inbox:

From your Outlook settings, go to General > Storage and empty your deleted items. You can bulk delete or archive according to a timeframe by going to Settings > View all Outlook settings > Mail > Rules > and adding the terms for your rule.

What happens if I exceed my storage limit?

Make sure you stay under your storage limit

If you go over your OneDrive limit, you will receive a warning and you will have read-only access to OneDrive. When this happens, you will not be able to upload any new files to your OneDrive.

Learn more about managing OneDrive storage

If you go over your Outlook limit, you won’t be able to send or receive emails in Outlook.

Learn more about managing Outlook storage