Hotmail account Storage

Question

Hello,

I received an email saying that the storage in my Hotmail account is full due to no subscription in Microsoft 365 service.

Please note that I have an active yearly subscription to Personal Microsoft 365 and am being charged via my Apple account under the username:- ****@gmail.com.

looking forward to solving my storage issue.

Regards,

Fuad Elmani

(PII Removed)

Answer 1

I purchased extra storage, pls confirm the current size of my outlook account and the total storage capacity.

Answer 2

Does that mean that my email account size have currently exceeded 100 GB??

Answer 3

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Did you check whether the email was sent from official Microsoft support?

Open an InPrivate/Incognito window in any web browser and sign in to your Microsoft account using this link:

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/options/accounts-category/storage

Check whether Microsoft 365 Personal – 1 TB is shown there.

To check if the subscription is active, sign in with your account here-

https://account.microsoft.com/services

If you have enough storage and the subscription is active, carefully review the legitimacy of the email you received.

Do not click any links or provide any personal information until you have checked your account directly and confirmed that your storage is displayed correctly online.

If possible, please share the sender’s email address or a screenshot of the message so I can look into it. Make sure you hide your own email address before uploading any screenshot here.

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Answer 4

The storage warning is not caused by lack of a Microsoft 365 subscription; it is caused by exceeding the storage quota on the Microsoft account that owns the Hotmail/Outlook.com mailbox or its associated cloud storage.

Key points from the storage model:

• Outlook.com email storage and Microsoft cloud storage are related but separate:
  • Outlook.com mailbox: 15 GB free email storage.
  • Microsoft cloud storage (OneDrive + Outlook.com attachments + some app data): 5 GB free.
  • With a paid Microsoft 365 consumer subscription, mailbox size can go up to 100 GB and cloud storage is increased.
• When Microsoft unified storage is exceeded (cloud storage over quota):
  • Cannot send or receive email in Outlook.com, even if the email storage itself is not full.
  • Cannot upload, edit, or sync new files to OneDrive; existing files become read-only.
  • After 6 months over quota, OneDrive and its files may be deleted.

What the “storage is full” / “Microsoft Unified Storage is full” message means:

• It means the Microsoft cloud storage quota has been exceeded on that Microsoft account, not simply that there is no subscription.
• If the Microsoft storage is exceeded:
  • Sending and receiving email in Outlook.com is blocked.
  • Teams messages with attachments are also blocked.

How to resolve the issue:

1. Confirm which Microsoft account is over quota
   • The subscription being billed via Apple is tied to a specific Microsoft account (the one used when the subscription was purchased). The Hotmail address must be signed in with the same Microsoft account for the increased storage to apply.
   • If the Hotmail address and the Microsoft account used for the Apple-billed subscription are different, the Hotmail account will still be on the free 5 GB/15 GB limits and can be over quota even though another account has a paid subscription.
2. Check storage usage and quota for the Hotmail account
   • Sign in to Outlook.com with the Hotmail address.
   • Open Settings and search for Storage to see:
     • How much mailbox storage is used (out of 15 GB or 100 GB, depending on whether that account has a subscription).
     • Folder-by-folder breakdown to identify large folders.
3. If email storage is over quota
   • Use Settings > Storage in Outlook.com to delete items from large folders (Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Junk Email, etc.).
   • Use the options to permanently delete all items, or items older than 3, 6, or 12 months, in selected folders.
   • Once back under the email quota, sending/receiving email resumes. Messages sent while over quota are returned to senders and must be resent.
4. If Microsoft cloud storage (unified storage) is over quota
   • This includes OneDrive files, Outlook.com attachments, and other app data.
   • To get back under the quota for the Hotmail account:
     • If that account is on the free tier, either:
       • Buy a subscription for that specific Microsoft account, or
       • Free up storage space by deleting files and emptying recycle bins in OneDrive and cleaning up large email attachments.
     • If that account already has a Microsoft 365 subscription and is still over quota, free up storage space anyway, because consumer mailbox limits are capped at 100 GB and cloud storage has fixed limits per plan.
5. Ensure the subscription is applied to the correct account
   • If the Apple-billed Microsoft 365 Personal subscription is associated with a different sign-in (for example, a Gmail-based Microsoft account), the Hotmail account will not receive the increased storage.
   • In that case, either:
     • Move email usage to the Microsoft account that actually has the subscription, or
     • Purchase/assign a subscription directly to the Hotmail-based Microsoft account and then manage its storage as above.

Once the Hotmail account’s unified storage is back under its quota (either by freeing space or by having the correct subscription applied to that same Microsoft account), Outlook.com will allow sending and receiving mail again.

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References:

• Storage limits in Outlook.com
• Microsoft storage FAQs