outlook storage

Question

Hello

i've purchased more storage but it's not updated on my outlook? I really don't want to delete anymore emails so your help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

If you recently purchased additional space, please note that it may take 24 to 48 hours to update across all services. If you still don’t see the change after that time, try signing out and back in.

After that time frame, check if your storage space has been updated by visiting: https://outlook.live.com/

Go to Settings > Accounts > Storage

Expand both the Microsoft Storage and Cloud Storage sections

If the storage is not updated, I suggest contacting Microsoft Support directly so they can check it for you:

Click this link: https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/

Sign in to your Microsoft account.

Select Microsoft 365 > Click 'Get home support'.

Type "Chat with an agent" from the text field and press Enter.

Click "Contact support" at the bottom.

Select the product you need help with.

Follow the prompts to connect with a live agent.

Answer 2

OK, I can't access my onedrive because there's an error message every time I try to log in?

Answer 3

What you can also do is check for the cached file within your outlook

By default outlook will cache a years email and that could take very long

You can try reducing the above to a few months, steps as below:

1. In Outlook, go to File → Account Settings → Account Settings
2. Under the Email tab, double-click your account
3. You’ll see a slider: “Download email for the past:”
4. Move the slider from:
   • 1 year → 6 months → 3 months

Answer 4

Additional storage can take some time to appear across Outlook.com and OneDrive, and sometimes a manual refresh is needed.

Try these steps in order:

1. Confirm the new storage shows on the web
   • Go to Manage storage in OneDrive and refresh the page to check if the additional storage is visible. It may take up to 24 hours before changes show.
   • If the quota still hasn’t updated after 24 hours, unlink and re-link OneDrive as described in Unlink and re-link OneDrive.
2. Force a refresh of Outlook/Outlook.com storage
   • In Outlook.com, open Settings and search for Storage or Email storage to see the current mailbox usage and confirm if the new quota is reflected.
   • If using the Outlook mobile app, close the app completely, reopen it, then go to Settings → select the account → under Storage, tap the subscription type (Free plan or Premium) to force a refresh.
3. Allow for propagation time
   • After freeing space or purchasing storage, it can take up to 24–48 hours for the updated quota to fully apply across Outlook.com and OneDrive.

If, after 24–48 hours, storage still shows as full and mail is blocked even though the quota is increased and usage is below the limit, contact support using the “get in touch with us” option from the storage/help pages so the account can be checked and corrected.

---

References:

• Microsoft storage FAQs
• What is Microsoft cloud storage?
• Storage limits in Outlook.com
• Mailbox storage limits in Outlook
• How to Fix outlook - Microsoft Q&A
• storage exceeded in outlook after purchasing MS 365 subscription - Microsoft Q&A
• Storage showing full - Microsoft Q&A