Microsoft has announced changes to Outlook email which come into effect in 2023, impacting Microsoft 365 subscribers. The changes will only impact Outlook.com users – if you are a desktop user of Outlook nothing changes.
Personalised Outlook email addresses
Starting 30/11/2023, you will no longer be able to associate a new personalised email address (e.g. [email protected]) with your Outlook.com mailbox.
What this means is that if you want to associate your business email address with your Outlook email you only have a year to do so.
If you already have a personalised email address set up, you will not be impacted by this change, and you can continue using it without any disruption in service. After 30/11/2023, if you choose to remove your existing personalised email address, you will be unable to add it back.
Outlook email storage will impact cloud storage
Starting 01/02/2023, cloud storage used across Microsoft 365 apps and services will include Outlook.com attachments data and OneDrive data. All data will continue to be protected with Microsoft’s comprehensive set of security features.
This update will not impact your Outlook.com mailbox storage amount. However, this may reduce how much cloud storage you have available to use with your OneDrive. If you reach your cloud storage quota, your ability to send and receive emails in Outlook.com will be disrupted.
What this means is that if you are the type of email user that never deletes an email, you may have gigabytes of old attachments in your email folders. It’s time to triage your email and decide what you no longer need and can safely delete. This will definitely impact you if you have sent large image or video files as zipped attachments and in future you might want to consider making use of online file transfer services rather than filling up your inbox with attachments.
During the transition, Microsoft are adding at least an extra 50 GB to your cloud storage for 1 year starting on 01/02/2023. This extra storage expires after a year.
