not enough space available

Question

I am using a school account and was given 100GB of storage. Recently, I received a message saying "Storage space is low." When I checked, I still had about 16GB of free space. To free up more room, I moved an additional 4GB of files and emptied the trash. However, I am still receiving the "Storage space is low" message, and new files are not syncing.

Answer 1

Hi @KIMYUKYEONG, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

First, please check the Second-stage Recycle Bin and delete any remaining files to ensure your storage space is fully cleared. To access it: 

Sign in to OneDrive via a browser using your school account. 

Click on Recycle Bin in the left-hand navigation. 

Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Second-stage Recycle Bin, then remove any items still stored there. 

After clearing the bins, please wait approximately one hour for your storage metrics to refresh. 

Next, if the warning still appears, it may be due to corrupted cache or expired credentials misreporting available storage. Please try the following steps: 

Right-click the OneDrive cloud icon in the Windows taskbar. 

Select Settings → Account → Unlink this PC. 

Sign back in and allow a full re-sync. 

Note: Unlinking will remove the OneDrive folder from your PC. Any files that haven’t been uploaded to the cloud may be lost. Please carefully review and back up any unsynced data before proceeding. 

For reference, you can review this guide: Unlink and re-link OneDrive - Microsoft Support 

If the warning persists, I strongly recommend contacting your school’s IT administrator: 

The SharePoint admin may need to trigger a quota refresh on the backend. 

They can also check for any storage policies or retention settings applied at the organization level that may override personal cleanup efforts. 

If you have any updates or further questions, please feel free to leave a comment under this post. I’ll be happy to assist further. 

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Answer 2

My issue was resolved after a few days. As you mentioned, it seems that the items in the secondary trash were deleted after the retention period. Thank you for your help in resolving this.