Microsoft Basic

Question

I have Microsoft basic under my email address. This is sufficent for my needs.

My husband also has an email address and is getting emails saying he is over storage limit.

I can access all our files/photos from my email address.

Am I right in thinking Basic only covers one email address?

Can I add another email address to Basic?

Or? do I have to pay for Basic against by husband's email address too?

You do make it very difficult to find the answers for these questions.

By the way, we are pensioners and are doing our best to keep up with everything, but it's hard

when you don't have a young person to ask!

Thanks for your help

Karen

Answer 1

Microsoft 365 Basic is for one personal Microsoft account (one email address). It cannot be shared or used to increase storage for another person’s separate account.

Key points for this situation:

1. What Microsoft 365 Basic includes
   • 100 GB of cloud storage shared across OneDrive files/photos and Outlook.com attachments for that one account.
   • 100 GB of mailbox storage for that same Outlook.com email account.
   • Ad‑free Outlook.com and support benefits for that account.
2. Why the husband is getting “over storage limit” emails
   • His email address is a separate Microsoft account with its own storage quota.
   • If he has no paid subscription, he gets 5 GB of cloud storage and 15 GB of Outlook.com email storage.
   • If his usage goes over those free limits, Microsoft sends “storage limit exceeded” or similar warnings and can restrict sending/receiving email or uploading new files.
3. Whether Microsoft 365 Basic can be shared
   • Microsoft 365 Basic and Microsoft 365 Personal cannot share storage between accounts.
   • Only Microsoft 365 Family allows sharing subscription storage with up to 5 other people, and each person gets their own storage allocation.
4. Options for the husband’s account
   • Free option: Reduce his storage so he is under the free limits (delete or move files/photos from his OneDrive, clean up Outlook.com emails and attachments). Guidance is in How to reduce your cloud storage.
   • Paid option: Purchase a separate Microsoft 365 Basic (or another Microsoft 365 subscription) for his email address so he gets his own 100 GB cloud and mailbox storage.
5. Why all files/photos are visible under one email
   • If all family files/photos are stored in one OneDrive (for example, under Karen’s Microsoft 365 Basic account), they can be accessed from that account regardless of who took the photos or created the files.
   • This does not extend the storage quota of another person’s separate Microsoft account.

In summary:

• Microsoft 365 Basic covers only one email address (one Microsoft account).
• Another email address cannot be added to share that same Basic subscription.
• To stop the husband’s “over storage limit” messages, either reduce his storage under the free limits or buy a separate subscription for his account.

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References:

• Frequently asked questions about Microsoft 365 Basic
• Microsoft storage FAQs
• Microsoft storage quotas