May 13, 2026 • Filed to: Recover Emails • Proven solutions
TL;DR:
You cannot delete a Hotmail or Outlook email address without closing your entire Microsoft account and losing access to connected services like OneDrive and Skype, unless you replace it with a new primary alias.
● To delete an old email address while keeping your Microsoft account active, you must create a new email alias in your Outlook settings, set it as the primary alias, and then remove the old address.
● Closing your entire Microsoft account requires canceling any live subscriptions beforehand and triggers a 60-day waiting period, during which you can still reactivate the account by logging in with your original credentials.
● Emails already emptied from the Trash folder can be restored using the recovered deleted messages link at the bottom of the page, but emails deleted months or years ago require third-party data recovery software to scan local drives.
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Email addresses get deleted for reasons such as unprofessional name, the need to switch to a new email address provider, too much spam, etc. If you are one such user that wants to delete your Hotmail or Outlook account but doesn't know how to go about it, then this article will be of great help to you. Here, you will learn measures to take into consideration when it comes to deleting your mail account. More so, deleting your old Outlook or Hotmail account requires a step-by-step approach whereby one step must be completed to achieve the next. It may sound complex right now but once you begin, you will discover that it is as simple as simple gets.
Before you delete your Hotmail or Outlook account, it is important that you pay attention to the following:
It has been made clear from the section above that you need to first close your Microsoft account before deleting your email. Do this by following these steps:
To delete your Outlook account properly, follow these steps:
If you have decided not to delete the whole Microsoft account but don't know which other options are available for you, then you need to pay attention to the measures and steps here:
1 Create a New Outlook Email Address
You need to create a new Outlook email address before deleting the old email address. To create a new Outlook email address, do these:
2 Change Sign-in Preferences on Outlook
At this point, other Microsoft apps, and services will still be logged in using your old email address so it is not totally forgotten about. How do you make this go away? Simply choose which of the email addresses can be used to sign in to your account. Do this by following these steps:
3 Change the Primary Email Address
Another important factor at play here is that you cannot delete or remove the old Outlook address without removing its status as your primary account address. Simply put, you have to revoke its privileges as your primary account. To achieve this, follow these guidelines:
4 Delete the Old Outlook Email Address
Now that you have done all the above, you are in the right position to finally delete your old Outlook email address. With the steps below, you are good to go:
However, if you're using Gmail, learn how to delete a Gmail account here.
At present, almost every user has their own email accounts. Using email properly is, without doubt, an advantage as it provides you with wonderful features. Nevertheless, there comes a time when you mistakenly delete a confidential or vital email, permanently. You must be panic for fear of losing the data forever. Here are a few tips you should follow after deleting your email:
Step 1: Log into your Hotmail account. On the left side of the screen, find the bar which states: Deleted.
Step 2: Check for the mail you have deleted. Click on it to move to the new screen.
Step 3: Click on the "Move to" option in the header of the screen. On the drop-down menu you see, choose the first option "Inbox". Then your email will be quickly recovered and sent back to your Inbox.
In part 2, we have instructed you how to recover your email if it is still in your Trash folder and you haven't emptied it. But what are you supposed to do when you already empty your Trash?
Here are the steps you should follow to get them back.
Step 1: Log into your Hotmail account. Just for the sake of yourself, please check out the Deleted option one last time before restoring your email. You are likely to see that your email is gone.
Step 2: Scroll to the end of the page. You will see a line text with the phrase: "recovered deleted messages" in blue highlight. Click on it.
Step 3: After choosing it, the software will quickly recover your deleted email back. It will be moved back to the Deleted bar. Now you don't have to be worried about losing your email.
If the solution cannot help in getting back old Hotmail emails deleted from months or years ago. You can try Wondershare Recoverit.
The two previous parts give you very detailed instructions on how to get back your Hotmail. But what if both of them don't work out? Well, in that case, we recommend you use a very popular software to solve the problem: Wondershare Recoverit data recovery software.
Free download Recoverit data recovery software and launch it. Follow the next simple steps to perform email recovery. Mac users can download Recoverit for Mac to have a try. The steps are similar to the Wins.
Step 1: Choose the original location where you last saved your lost email, and then click "Start" to launch a quick scan.
Step 2: If the quick scan can't find your lost email, go to "All-Around Recovery" to start a deep scan. Although it will be longer to give you the final result, it will definitely have a better opportunity to find your emails.
Step 3: After the scanning process, all your lost emails will be displayed on the screen. Now just simply choose the one you want to recover and get them back as easily as never before.
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