How To Delete Hotmail Account

Want to close your Microsoft account? Or delete your Outlook or Hotmail account? Here's how to do it right.

Sometimes there comes a time in the life of an email address when it needs to be put to rest. Maybe it's suffering from spam overload or an unprofessional username, or maybe you've just decided to switch to a new email provider.

But how do you delete an Outlook email address? And how to delete a Hotmail account? If you want to delete an address from one of the two providers, what is the procedure?

To learn more, keep reading.

How to delete your Outlook or Hotmail account

Outlook and Hotmail are both owned and operated by Microsoft. If you have an email account with either service, it's inextricably linked to the rest of your profile in your Microsoft account.

As such, you cannot delete your Outlook or Hotmail account without deleting your Microsoft account.

Depending on your use case, this might not be prudent or possible. Many other services depend on your Microsoft account, including Windows, Xbox Live, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft To-Do.

If you want to delete your Microsoft account, follow the steps below:

• Go to account.microsoft.com and enter your login credentials.

• Click the Your Information tab at the top of the page.

• Scroll down to the Microsoft Account Help section.

• Click on How to close your account.

• Choose whether you want Microsoft to retain your data for 30 days or 60 days.

• Click Next.

• Go through the different security confirmations.

For 30/60 days after completing the process, you can log back into your account using the same credentials to reactivate it.

We've written a lot about how to delete your Microsoft account if you need more information. The article explains, among other things, how to delete a Microsoft account on Windows.

How to delete Outlook or Hotmail email addresses

So you've decided that deleting your entire Microsoft account isn't the best solution, but what other options do you have?

Fortunately, Outlook's support for aliases means you always have a choice. To continue, follow these steps:

1. Create a new Outlook email alias.

2. Change your connection settings.

3. Change your primary account email address.

4. Delete the old email address.

1. Create a new Outlook email address

Before you can ask yourself how to delete your old Outlook email address, you must first create a new one. It will live under the same Microsoft account umbrella as your current address.

To begin the process, sign in to the Outlook web app, click the gear icon in the upper right corner, and select View all Outlook settings.

In the new window, go to Email > Sync Emails > Email Aliases > Manage or choose a primary alias. Your browser will open. Add a new alias by clicking Add email.

You now have two options:

You can either create an entirely new email address or add an existing email address on another Microsoft account to your Outlook inbox. This last option is useful if you want to merge your old delete Hotmail account with your new Outlook email address.

When you have entered the required information, click the Add Alias ​​button. The new Outlook email address is now active. You can use it to send and receive emails immediately.

2. Change connection preferences on Outlook

Your old email address will still be used as an identifier for your other Microsoft apps and services; you can't really leave it in the past.

You can solve this problem by choosing which of your Outlook email addresses has login permissions on your account. When viewing your list of aliases, click Edit connection preferences at the bottom of the screen to make changes. Check the boxes next to the accounts you need to give access to and click Save when you're ready.

Note: You cannot change the connection settings for your primary Outlook account.

3. Change primary email address

You will not be able to remove your Outlook or Hotmail address without first removing its primary address status on your account.

To remove privileges from your old email, go back to Email > Sync Email > Email Aliases > Manage or choose a primary alias from Outlook's Settings menu.

It will display a list of all your email addresses on the screen. Identify the new address you just created, then click the corresponding Make Primary button and accept the on-screen confirmation.

4. Delete old Outlook email address

After creating an email alias and making it (or one of your other aliases) your primary address on your Microsoft account, you're ready to delete your old Outlook email address. Remember that following this process means that the underlying Microsoft account remains unchanged.

Again, open the Outlook or Hotmail web app and navigate to Email > Sync Email > Email Aliases > Manage or choose a primary alias from the Settings menu.

Find the Outlook email address to delete in the list, then click the Delete button and accept the confirmation on the screen.

Please note: deleting your old email means that you can no longer receive messages at the address. Be sure to provide your new email address to any companies, apps, or services that use your old email address as a point of contact. If you do not notify the Services, you may not be able to access your accounts.