OneDrive Says I need more storage when I clearly have enough

Question

OneDrive Says I need more storage when I clearly have enough

Rhiandromm 36

Hi,

I try to copy and paste from my desktop to white cloud OD and it says I need more space (ie 32.6g) but I have near 1tb worth of space left, considering I'm only trying to move 160g. Please see photo.

I just upgraded. Although I have successfully moved over (dragged) 9gigs worth. Have also just erased that.

I've tried:
logging out then in
Removing and replacing files
I can manually drop smaller files (but have not tried to manually drop every single small file)

Been trying to trouble shoot this for a couple of hours now.

TIA

Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2021-02-18T07:48:52.153+00:00

@Rhiandromm
As Q&A forum is a public place, to protect your privacy information, I covered your email account on the screenshot.
Rhiandromm 36 Reputation points

2021-02-18T13:02:20.923+00:00

thank you.
TAS Consulting 16 Reputation points

2022-07-05T02:55:51.64+00:00

Same problem here, what is this rubbish.

Every day the same problem.
Chance Watkins 0 Reputation points

2023-02-20T12:45:20.51+00:00

Yea it would help if this problem is fixed. I'm not spending money per month on something that doesn't even work half the time. :p. Plus this problem sabotaged my work files that I had been working on for years.
Steve A 30 Reputation points

2023-02-21T05:23:52.4166667+00:00

Same Issue. Obviously MS only wants your money because they have no one monitoring their own forums to assist.
DGS 0 Reputation points

2023-04-10T23:46:32.94+00:00

Total bullshit scam. I have plenty of free space. Just dropping all this horseshit and copying all my files to my 16 terabyte NAS. What a joke of an operation.
Kris 0 Reputation points

2023-05-11T14:45:09.67+00:00

you are complety right
marlene harris 0 Reputation points

2023-07-17T00:06:17.57+00:00

agree
marlene harris 0 Reputation points

2023-07-17T00:07:00.19+00:00

agree
Robert Lane 0 Reputation points

2023-10-08T23:00:23.4466667+00:00

Ransomware. Disk has umpteen Gig but MS wants you to pay them to use your own disk space.
Sent from a Chromebook....
Juan David Valencia 0 Reputation points

2024-03-03T19:50:40.75+00:00

Hi, I had the same problem. After multiple back and forth, I tried deleting the entire OneDrive trash, it turns out that these documents also count towards the total storage, but not when counting the metrics (81 GB available out of 100 appeared in my house, but it did not add the documents from the trash, therefore on the One Drive of my PC even more than 100 GB appeared, even if I had deleted several gigabytes. Therefore, by deleting the entire trash, the problem automatically disappeared.
James Cook 0 Reputation points

2025-02-27T22:36:31.1466667+00:00

I'm only using 3% of storage, so it's not the trash.
AM MS 0 Reputation points

2025-05-25T22:42:37.7633333+00:00

Same problem in 2025 still, and I've NEVER had this issue with Google Drive. I even cleared my entire Recycle Bin, but it still doesn't work. Still says my OneDrive is full when it's practically empty now.

What a joke of a scam Microsoft 365 is.
James Cook 0 Reputation points

2025-05-26T16:39:40.9666667+00:00

You need to use the email address Microsoft365 is registered under, I was using two, the one that received a free offer and the one I paid for.

Doing a clean uninstall of Microsoft365 fixed the problem for me. Revo is a free product that will do a clean uninstall.

Microsoft support had me do a limited reinstall of windows, but I don't think that was necessary and you end up having to reinstall a lot of software.

4 answers

Your answer

Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2021-02-18T07:48:52.153+00:00

@Rhiandromm
As Q&A forum is a public place, to protect your privacy information, I covered your email account on the screenshot.
Rhiandromm 36 Reputation points

2021-02-18T13:02:20.923+00:00

thank you.
TAS Consulting 16 Reputation points

2022-07-05T02:55:51.64+00:00

Same problem here, what is this rubbish.

Every day the same problem.
Chance Watkins 0 Reputation points

2023-02-20T12:45:20.51+00:00

Yea it would help if this problem is fixed. I'm not spending money per month on something that doesn't even work half the time. :p. Plus this problem sabotaged my work files that I had been working on for years.
Steve A 30 Reputation points

2023-02-21T05:23:52.4166667+00:00

Same Issue. Obviously MS only wants your money because they have no one monitoring their own forums to assist.
DGS 0 Reputation points

2023-04-10T23:46:32.94+00:00

Total bullshit scam. I have plenty of free space. Just dropping all this horseshit and copying all my files to my 16 terabyte NAS. What a joke of an operation.
Kris 0 Reputation points

2023-05-11T14:45:09.67+00:00

you are complety right
marlene harris 0 Reputation points

2023-07-17T00:06:17.57+00:00

agree
marlene harris 0 Reputation points

2023-07-17T00:07:00.19+00:00

agree
Robert Lane 0 Reputation points

2023-10-08T23:00:23.4466667+00:00

Ransomware. Disk has umpteen Gig but MS wants you to pay them to use your own disk space.
Sent from a Chromebook....
Juan David Valencia 0 Reputation points

2024-03-03T19:50:40.75+00:00

Hi, I had the same problem. After multiple back and forth, I tried deleting the entire OneDrive trash, it turns out that these documents also count towards the total storage, but not when counting the metrics (81 GB available out of 100 appeared in my house, but it did not add the documents from the trash, therefore on the One Drive of my PC even more than 100 GB appeared, even if I had deleted several gigabytes. Therefore, by deleting the entire trash, the problem automatically disappeared.
James Cook 0 Reputation points

2025-02-27T22:36:31.1466667+00:00

I'm only using 3% of storage, so it's not the trash.
AM MS 0 Reputation points

2025-05-25T22:42:37.7633333+00:00

Same problem in 2025 still, and I've NEVER had this issue with Google Drive. I even cleared my entire Recycle Bin, but it still doesn't work. Still says my OneDrive is full when it's practically empty now.

What a joke of a scam Microsoft 365 is.
James Cook 0 Reputation points

2025-05-26T16:39:40.9666667+00:00

You need to use the email address Microsoft365 is registered under, I was using two, the one that received a free offer and the one I paid for.

Doing a clean uninstall of Microsoft365 fixed the problem for me. Revo is a free product that will do a clean uninstall.

Microsoft support had me do a limited reinstall of windows, but I don't think that was necessary and you end up having to reinstall a lot of software.

Answer 1

Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796

@Rhiandromm

Please check whether your C drive has enough free space to sync these files.

I suggest you refer to Yuki Sun's first reply on the similar thread "OneDrive says not enough space, ··· ".
Please create a separate new folder, then upload your files to OneDrive online instead of copying and pasting files to the local new folder for a test.

Any updates, please let me know.

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Rhiandromm 36 Reputation points

2021-02-18T13:01:29.133+00:00

thank you. Have tried that.
This is the white cloud/personal so the instructions in the mentioned previous answer may not reply as when I right click it doen't give the choice to sync.

Although I did the upload from the bar. So far it's working. Worried I'll get to half the upload and it stops.

I'll let you know. Thank you.
Rhiandromm 36 Reputation points

2021-02-18T15:11:06.09+00:00

So, tried it (upload from the OneDrive Online) and it got to about 9.9g used and then said error try later, with underneath that "not enough memory in red)
Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2021-02-19T09:53:41.843+00:00

@Rhiandromm
Thanks for your sharing.
If uploading files onto OneDrive Online directly, this issue still exists which reminds you there is not enough free space, I suggest you split the contents of the folder to reduce the size of synchronized files to have a check.

You can also try to find the folder with the largest capacity on OneDrive online and move it temporarily to check this issue.
Rhiandromm 36 Reputation points

2021-02-21T05:01:49.4+00:00

Doing that now. Up to 239G.
I think this is it....
Will let you know.,
Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2021-02-23T09:10:15.34+00:00

@Rhiandromm
Emm, have all files uploaded successfully?
Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2021-03-09T08:30:23.123+00:00

@Rhiandromm
I am checking this thread. Is there any update?
If your issue has been gone away, welcome to post back and please remember to click "Accept Answer" for it.
This action could helpful other users who encounter the similar thread.
Thanks.
Ariel 0 Reputation points

2024-07-16T22:38:12.2266667+00:00

Help, I am trying to move files to an external hard drive. My computer storage does not have enough space but if I move it from OneDrive to the other drive with more than enough space it should work. Nevertheless it shows me the same alert others mentioned about apparent lack of space. Do I need to empty the main drive? There is little to uninstall and seems like pointless trouble.

Note: I wish I could disable the default saving option from Microsoft Office saving it in the Microsoft One Drive is a pain in the ass.

Answer 2

Aubrey Mvhubelo 5

I had the same problem as well.

The problem is that there is no enough space in your C drive to sync the file you want to save.

Solution is to log on the web portal OneDrive and upload the file.

Chris Barger 0 Reputation points

2023-11-09T15:16:22.9366667+00:00

This solution worked for me.

Answer 3

Philannek 5

I had this problem where it was still saying I needed to upgrade and showing red cross.

I followed the help article to Unlink onedrive and Re-link onedrive to computer.

After unlinking and re;linking my account it is now syncing again and no more red crosses.

James Cook 0 Reputation points

2025-02-27T22:34:39.3133333+00:00

Do you have a link to the help article? I don't see a way to Re-link onedrive to the computer.

Answer 4

Achintha Bandaranaike 1

clear your c memory

Rhiandromm 36 Reputation points

2021-02-17T15:32:37.697+00:00

Thanks for the quick reply.

..Although I am not sure what C memory is? Sorry

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OneDrive Says I need more storage when I clearly have enough

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