what happens if you don't renew a MS365 subscription?

[stuck]

I guess the the answer is fairly obvious, "Duh! The MS365 applications will stop working." OK, so I suppose my real question is, What happens to anything you've stored on OneDrive if you don't renew?

I guess the answer to that depends on how much you've got on OneDrive. If it's less than the limit on a free MS account (5GB) I presume you'll still have access to it but if it's above that limit, which if you've been paying for a MS365 Family subscription is 1TB, you'll loose that data.

I'm curious about this because I'm entitled to take out a MS365 subscription at a discount through the MS Home Use Programme but some time soon I intend to retire. At that point my work email address will stop working and that will mean I'm no longer entitled to the MS Home Use Programme. Sure, I could cough up and take out a new subscription at the full rate but I can envisage the hand over being less than simple and so, during it, anything on OneDrive getting lost.

Any thoughts anyone?

Ken

[HansV]

As far as I know, your description is correct. However, I'd make a full local backup of your OneDrive before ending your current Microsoft 365 subscription, to be on the safe side.

[stuck]

Agreed, a full backup before doing anything involving data is always sensible.

In fact in this scenario it's probably essential, since I'd guess changing the subscription type (discounted HU programme to full price retail) would give you a brand new empty OneDrive and not continue to point at your previous (full of data) OneDrive.

Ken

[John Gray]

A more fundamental question is:
What happens to a Microsoft 365 subscription when you die...?

That's why I am more keen on the one-off purchase of Office 2021 or 2019 to replace Office 2010, rather than Microsoft 365, and local storage rather than OneDrive.