I created a new Outlook.com email address instead of renaming existing. How can I free up the new account?

Anonymous
2012-08-02T19:07:20+00:00

Hi,

Before realising I could transfer/upgrade/rename my existing Live account to an outlook.com address, I created a new one in error. After realising my mistake, I deleted/closed the newly created outlook.com address then attempted to rename my current Live account to the now closed outlook.com account. Unfortunately I am not able to as I'm told I will need to wait 270 days before the account I created will be available for use.

Clearly I can prove I created the outlook.com account as I have all the security details. Is there any way of freeing up the account immediately?

Additionally, I am not the only person who has made this mistake, several of us jumped in feet-first. Below are a selection of links to people asking the same question. None of us have had a useful reply yet. Please can somebody provide us with a solution (other than mark your diary for 270 days from now)?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-wlsettings/changing-outlookcom-address-to-an-existing/886b6276-6449-4e45-b48c-a49b8f83e080

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/link-new-outlookcom-back-to-current-hotmailcom-as/c0fa4c63-abd4-41f4-9af0-0eef6613cb79

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/need-my-deleted-outlookcom-address-removed-so-i/47938c0c-00a0-455c-9b2b-65967a5232a7

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/i-created-a-new-outlookcom-address-before-i/4ea80c6a-207e-415f-a582-27012bdd8a61

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/can-i-migrate-my-hotmail-account-to-outlookcom/2dfb4ac4-15fe-487e-84b9-34a1f212cc01

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/i-want-to-delete-the-outlookcom-address-i-just/f6eaee9f-8b3f-4f12-bcef-1ba9c9e9edee

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/2-accounts-cannot-delete-outlookcom-account-to/95814928-3c46-4997-b931-d5e7c90eeb24

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/liveid-profile/get-old-livecom-services-migrated-to-new/b3606625-e405-4d7f-8451-014858efdcbb

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/liveid-signin/livecom-to-outlookcom-account-migration-issue/21de410a-0763-40ae-8ae6-6fa5b0fd63df

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/is-there-a-way-to-just-have-my-outlookcom-added-as/137e5ece-8690-4c2d-82ad-664011472428

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/how-do-i-cancel-an-outlookcom-account-and-register/87528db5-669f-458a-be5c-23a7b711fd53

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/opened-new-outlookcom-address-but-meant-to-switch/22834f04-7e0b-47e0-a979-833ba7ead936

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/how-change-hotmailcom-to-outlookcom/c055446e-69de-4a6e-a3d8-7024139d0274

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/outlookcom-account-deletion-problem/47cb7083-fa51-4684-a18a-a03bf2cc1c51

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/is-there-a-way-to-delete-my-outlookcom-email/79d03deb-9e0d-409a-958e-e473564e6e24

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/outlookcom-new-account-by-mistake/50c748ef-3001-420f-aef6-ea5e59ce867b

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/liveid-profile/i-created-a-new-outlookcom-address-instead-of/0bae11d5-94c2-4c77-9659-d2306d3d85da

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/liveid-profile/is-it-possible-to-delete-my-outlookcom-account/fda758b8-d6f0-42ff-aaad-ea8cb2cd625f

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-profile/merging-outlookcom-and-hotmail-accounts/dc0fc660-6485-4f78-a2c4-e3b5d9193407

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/hotmail-signin/mergelink-hotmailcom-account-with-the-new/91b4a27f-5517-4f76-b448-02eb16efa8fc

Cheers

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Account management, security, and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2012-08-10T17:33:21+00:00

Hi Everyone,

Merging accounts is currently not available for Microsoft accounts. This issue has been reported to our Senior Support Team and they are currently looking into this. Well be sending updates once all the details are complete.

I will be locking this thread now. For workarounds please refer to my post last August 6, 2012.

Thank you all for your patience and cooperation.

Regards,

Jen

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-08-10T17:06:27+00:00

    Clearly you do not understand what people are asking. We want to make our primary live/hotmail address an outlook address. What you are suggesting is forwarding email to the Outlook account, not converting the address to one. This does not move contacts, connections and Skydrive content.

    MS was not clear on how to do this and people made a new Outlook account that uses the same username as their Hotmail/Live account so we cannot change the original account to Outlook.com as cancelling the Outlook account takes 270 days to clear from Microsoft's system. Please read the questions and concerns before you repeatedly flood this thread with the same generic answer over and over again when its not relevant.

    I echo this...

    I want my new Outlook.com address to be my PRIMARY Microsoft Account. I want to merge my old @Live.com address into this one and be done with it. I want all of my Microsoft services (including my 25 gigs of Skydrive) to be associated with my new Outlook.com address.

    I too echo this.

    However in my case I created new outlook id as my old Hotmail id was associated with wrong country (creating problems for buying apps).

    Hope somebody from Microsoft would come back with solution for this.

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