20,000 file max limits value of ‘unlimited’ OneDrive for Business

I have used various cloud storage services over the years. A few of them I have only used long enough to test out for a review, and some–like Box–have become my primary cloud storage. With all of the changes and improvements Microsoft has made this year for OneDrive, though, and its tight integration with the Windows operating system, I decided to give it another try.

After a few days I found out that it won’t work for me. OneDrive for Business only allows 20,000 files and folders per account. Although my total data is far less than the 1TB allocation I have, and a drop in the bucket for the impending “unlimited” capacity Microsoft is rolling out, I have over 20,000 files so OneDrive for Business is incapable of syncing my data.

It’s a shame because one of the changes Microsoft made this year was to raise the limitation on an individual file from 2GB to 10GB, and I have a handful of files that I can’t sync with Box because they exceed the maximum file size there. Here is what I wrote about my experience trying to switch to OneDrive for Business:

OneDrive capacity has grown by leaps and bounds this year. Microsoft increased capacity 40-fold earlier this year when it bumped the humble 25 GB of storage for OneDrive for Business accounts up to 1 TB, then a mere four months later it increased it again — this time infinitely to unlimited storage. Oddly, though, unlimited OneDrive storage doesn’t translate to being able to store an unlimited amount of data in Microsoft’s cloud.

I’ve used Box for storing my files in the cloud for years, but I decided to give OneDrive for Business a shot — mostly because of the tight integration between Windows 8.1 (and the Windows 10 Technical Preview) and OneDrive. It seemed like it would be simpler, or more intuitive in some way — at least in theory — to go with the flow and use OneDrive, and since Microsoft was kind enough to boost the capacity, I figured, why not?

I cut and pasted all of the folders from my Box Sync folder over to the OneDrive for Business syncing folder, and then sat back and let the syncing begin. My OneDrive for Business account hasn’t yet been pushed to unlimited, but I was only trying to sync about 75 GB or 80 GB of data, so 1 TB was plenty.

Read the full story at TechRepublic: The limits of unlimited OneDrive storage.