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

Anonymous

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

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

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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78 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-08-04T09:57:07+00:00

If I delete my account, will the alias I've created for this account also become free after 270 days?

And will it still be possible to upgrade the old windows live account to an office.com-mail address in 270 days from today or is there a time restriction?

Thanks.
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Anonymous

2012-08-04T05:58:41+00:00

I certainly am sorry that folks are in this situation. We tried to be quite clear on the blog - I'll quote from the first post here:

While today's preview is just the start, Outlook.com is ready now to become your primary email service. We're expecting millions of people to try it out. Starting today, you can get an @Outlook.com email address, and we've also made it easy to get started with your current email address if you want to.

However it was not as clear as the warning given about renaming @live or @hotmail acc associated with Windows Phones. - that warning message was clearly visible and highlighted; and is the only reason most of us went ahead and created a new @outlook acc instead of just renaming it.

Why weren't we warned in a similar manner about the danger of creating an @outlook acc instead of renaming?

THATS what i mean by miscommunication - surely MS can purge the name database so that us poor LOYAL folks dnt have to wait 270days.

Give us a way to authentica our ownership of both the @live/@hotmail acc and @outlook, then purge the @outlook account and then rename the existing @hotmail/@live accs
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Anonymous

2012-08-04T05:48:04+00:00
I certainly am sorry that folks are in this situation. We tried to be quite clear on the blog - I'll quote from the first post here:

While today's preview is just the start, Outlook.com is ready now to become your primary email service. We're expecting millions of people to try it out. Starting today, you can get an @Outlook.com email address, and we've also made it easy to get started with your current email address if you want to.
- If you're a Hotmail customer and want to upgrade to the Outlook.com preview, just click "Upgrade" in the options menu of Hotmail. Your email address, password, contacts, old email, and rules will remain unchanged, and you can send/receive email from your @hotmail.com or @msn.com or @live.com address. You'll experience it all in the new Outlook.com preview user interface. You can also add an @Outlook.com email address to your account if you want.
Again, I apologize and hope that either waiting or the workaround can help.
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Anonymous

2012-08-04T05:21:02+00:00

As per the post below, we hold the name for 270 days.

Finally someone from Microsoft has confirm what most of us were fearing - once the @outlook acc is deleted we have to wait 270days!!!!!

Thats completely BS in my opinion, that

1st - only NOW, we have someone from MS confirming the 270days rule applies.

2nd - that given the extraordinary nature of this issue (and miscommunication from MS in the 1st instance), the 270 days should be waived, so that we can all rename our existing hotmail acc (with the the full 25gb skydrive content, purchases etc...)

Sorry, but not good enough Microsoft.
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