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OneDrive user lost 30 years of data — Microsoft banned the account without explanation and ignored 18 recovery requests

Published by Kateryna Danshyna

OneDrive user wrote on Reddit, he wrote a lengthy post about a conflict with Microsoft, which suddenly blocked his account and, consequently, access to the cloud storage with data from more than 30 years of work — the company did not provide any explanation and ignores requests for restoration, sending only boilerplate replies.

«I transferred over 30 years of photos and data to OneDrive», — wrote deus03690 on Reddit. «I wanted to combine them from several old disks that I had to throw away due to lack of space and moving. The plan was to upload the data to the cloud and then transfer it to a new disk. Instead, Microsoft simply locked my» account.

The man added that he had a paid OneDrive account and admitted that the idea of «combining several eggs in one basket» was probably a bad one, but Microsoft in this case did not even provide a warning about the potential blocking and no explanation afterwards, and ignored each of the 18 recovery requests that the user sent — only automatic unsubscribes were sent in response.

«No human contact. No real help. Only template emails and radio silence».

What could be the reason for the blocking? Author of Tom`s Hardware Mark Tyson suggests that by combining all of his data in a cloud service, deus03690 could most likely have uploaded something that triggered copyright (or similar) signals and, as a result, blocked his Microsoft account.

Terms of use for Microsoft services explain how the company deals with blocked accounts:

  • The user will not be allowed to use a blocked Microsoft account to access the services.
  • The content and data associated with a locked account will be deleted from the account (unless Microsoft is required by law to retain, return, or transfer it to the user or a third party designated by the user), so the account holder should have a regular backup plan in place, as the company will not be able to recover content or data once the account is locked.
  • The user may lose access to the purchased products.

Obviously, there is no good news for deus03690. The comments advise the user to contact a lawyer and in the future to choose more reliable ways to migrate data (at least without deletion) and follow the 3-2-1» — rule: have three copies of data, two different media for them, and one copy physically stored in another location or in the cloud.