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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  1. Anonymous
    2012-08-04T02:15:33+00:00

    Hi everyone,

    Please be informed that merging your @hotmail.com or @live.com to an @outlook.com domain isn't available for now.

    In the meantime, if you have renamed your @hotmail account as an alias to @outlook.com domain, you can make the renamed account as a primary account. For more information, you may refer to this article:

    Can I make one of my aliases in Outlook.com my primary account?

    Thanks!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-08-04T02:11:15+00:00

    That's going to be unfortunate for those of us who created an outlook with the same id when MS transitions all accounts to outlook.com ones. Either we will be stuck changing the name or we loose our accounts all together. Probably the former but it's still a letdown. Why MS didn't just set all current users with the outlook account by default is beyond me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-08-04T01:34:31+00:00

    There is a new article on the official blog of Microsoft which states:

    "Don't sign-up for a new account; just sign-in with your existing Hotmail account. You don't need to change your address to use Outlook; in fact, if you sign-up for a new address, there is no way to combine or merge that new account with your old account."

    Said by the man who is responsible of what features go in.

    I guess there is not much hope then:)

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-08-04T00:54:42+00:00

    Hey guys,

    I just read somewhere that if you delete the account within 10 days after the registration, that the account name will be available again after 10 days.

    Still need to wait about 8 days to confirm this.

    But I believe this works, because I created an account once for my mom, but logged in again after a week or 2 and it said that the account didn't exist anymore. I then re-registered the same address without issues (so the account name was freed again).

    I certainly hope this is true, 10 days waiting is not as bad as 270 days :-)

     

    Best regards.

    I think that only works when you have signed up for an account and haven't signed in for the first time within 10 days, the account will be deleted. So if you already signed in once, it doesn't work.

    I think when an alias is deleted, then that name will become available after 30 days.

    You could rename your new @outlook.com account so that your desired email becomes an alias and delete it.

    I don't know if it actually works, but if it does, it still beats the 270 days of waiting:P

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