Cloud Storage

With the huge increase in the number of people that have been working from home this year, it’s inevitable that more and more of us have been using cloud storage services such as Dropbox to store files, photos, videos etc so that we can work from anywhere that has a decent internet connection. (Oh, and coffee but that is another necessity entirely!)

While using cloud storage is incredibly useful, there is a limit to how much storage is available and that is dependent on each service and the type of account you have with the service. The more you pay, the more storage you get so it would be helpful to know exactly how much of that storage has been taken up at any point in time.

With that in mind, we’ve chosen 6 of the most popular services (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, iDrive and iCloud) and worked out the steps for each one so that you can quickly and easily find out how much cloud storage you are using up. Just click on any of the down facing arrows to the right of each cloud service name and the full instructions will be shown to you.

Instructions

OneDrive - Personal

OneDrive – Personal

  1. If you have a personal Microsoft email address (an email address the ends in hotmail.com, live.com or outlook.com) go to https://onedrive.live.com and log in with your Microsoft email address and password. Once you have logged in, you will be taken to your OneDrive home page which will look something like this.
OneDrive's home page.

2. If you look to the bottom left-hand corner of the page, you will see a horizontal bar indicating how much of your OneDrive storage has been used up.

The usage bar that is displayed on the OneDrive home page.

3. So, in this example, 47.1 Gigabytes of storage has been used out of a maximum available of 1 Terabyte.

OneDrive - Business

OneDrive – Business

  1. If you have a Microsoft business email address (an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 email address that ends with your business name after the @ sign such as john.smith@abcwidgets.com) go to https://login.microsoftonline.com and log in with your email address and password.

2. Once you have logged in successfully, you will be taken to your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 home page which will look something like this.

The Microsoft 365 and Office 365 home page.

3. From the icons that are displayed on the left-hand side of the home page, click on the one for OneDrive.

The launch icon for OneDrive.

4. OneDrive will open in a new tab of your browser and look something like this.

The OneDrive for Business home page.

5. In the top right-hand corner of the OneDrive home page, click on the settings icon which is shaped like a round cog.

The OneDrive settings icon.

6. This will open the settings pane on the right-hand side of the browser page. In the settings pane, click on the text “OneDrive settings”.

The OneDrive settings link.

7. Your OneDrive settings will now be displayed in your browser and look like this.

The OneDrive settings page.

8. On this page, click on the line that reads “More Settings”.

The "More Settings" link highlighted in the OneDrive settings page.

9. The right side of the page will change to show more settings information. Under the “Features and storage” heading, click on the line that reads “Storage Metrics”.

The "Storage Metrics" link highlighted in the OneDrive "More Settings" page.

10. A new browser tab will open and in the top right-hand corner, you will see a horizontal bar showing how much space is available in your OneDrive.

The cloud usage bar in OneDrive for Business.

11. So, for this example the account has 977 Gigabytes of storage available from a total of 1024 Gigabytes (1 Terabyte). Notice that the rest of the page shows a useful breakdown of all the folders in your OneDrive and how much space each folder is using up.

Detailed cloud usage information in OneDrive for Business.

Google Drive

Google Drive

  1. From your Gmail page in a browser, click on the Google apps icon which is the nine dotted icon displayed in the top right-hand corner of your Gmail page.
The Google apps icon highlighted on the Gmail page.

2. A drop-down list of Google apps will appear and from this list, click on the Google Drive icon.

The Google Drive icon.

3. Google Drive will open in a new tab of your browser. In the left-hand side of this tab, you will see a horizontal bar showing how much Google Drive space has been used up.

The storage usage bar in Google Drive.

4. So, in this example 2.8 Gigabytes of storage has been used out of a maximum available of 15 Gigabytes.

Dropbox

Dropbox

  1. Log in to Dropbox in a browser (at https://dropbox.com) and after logging in successfully, click on your account icon which is the circular icon displayed in the top right-hand corner of your Dropbox home page.
The user account icon in Dropbox.

2. A drop-down menu will appear and, in this menu, click on the word “Settings”.

The account settings link in Dropbox.

3. The contents of the browser window will change to display all the available settings for your account. From here, click on the “Plan” tab.

The plan tab in the user account settings screen.

4. The contents of the browser window will change again and show you the plan you are on and a horizontal bar indicating how much space you have used in your account.

The storage usage bar in Dropbox.

5. So, in this example, 253 Megabytes of storage has been used out of a possible 7.75 Gigabytes. Of that 253 Megabytes, 206 Megabytes are normal files, and 46 Megabytes are files that are shared with other people.

Box

Box

  1. Log in to Box in a browser (at https://app.box.com) and after logging in successfully, click on your account icon which is the circular icon displayed in the top right-hand corner of your Box home page.
The user account icon in Box.

2. A drop-down menu will appear and, in this menu, click on the words “Account settings”.

The account settings link in Box.

3. The contents of the browser window will change to display all the available settings for your account. From here, scroll down until you get to the “Account details” section.

The account details section in the Box settings screen.

4. In this section you will see information about how much storage has been used up.

Account usage details in Box.

5. So, in this example, no storage has been used out of a maximum available of 10 Gigabytes.

iDrive

iDrive

  1. Log in to iDrive in a browser (at https://idrive.com) and after logging in successfully, click on your username which is displayed in the top right-hand corner of your iDrive home page.
The location of the username link in iDrive.

2. A drop-down pane will appear showing your account details. In this pane you will see a horizontal bar indicating how much storage has been used up in your iDrive account.

Storage usage details for iDrive.

3. So, in this example, no storage has been used out of a maximum available of 5 Gigabytes.

iCloud

iCloud

  1. Log in to iCLoud in a browser (at https://icloud.com) and after logging in successfully, click on your name which is displayed in the top right-hand corner of your iCloud home page.
The location of the username link in iCloud.

2. A drop-down menu will appear and, in this menu, click on the words “Account settings”.

The location of the Account Settings link in iCloud.

3. The contents of the browser window will change and display your iCloud account information with a horizontal bar showing how much storage has been used in your account.

The storage usage bar in iCloud.

4. If you hover your mouse over any part of the bar, more detailed information will be displayed.

The iCloud storage usage bar showing detailed information.

5. So, in this example, roughly half, 1 Terabyte, of storage is available out of a maximum of 2 Terabytes that is linked to the account.

8 Simple steps to working safely and smartly at home!

8 Simple steps to working safely and smartly at home!

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