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My hotmail account has disappeared

I have had my hotmail email for 20+ years and since may 14th I have received no emails (I also use other accounts but still need this one as its the log in for most of my accounts etc, I just don't check it every day) Now I cant even sign into it, it says it doesn't exist when I try to log in, I sent myself an email and it hasn't been returned so it must be out there somewhere. I am not given an option to recover it as microsoft just says it doesn't exist please try another email address...... I cant be without this account as its the basis for my whole online life

Hello Catherine! My name is David, and I am an Independent Advisor.

I'm sorry to hear you're having this problem, and I hope I can assist you in finding a satisfactory solution

First.. if your account has been inactive for 10 years, your account will be blocked and removed for inactivity.
Second...if you forgot your username, the error message will come up. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-bil...

Can you please try accessing your email account using your web browser?
You can use this link: https://outlook.live.com

Let us see how it goes.
Regards

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I’ve used my account often (maybe not sent an email from it) deleting spam checking emails almost every day, using it to sign up for new accounts and memberships etc so receiving emails up to May 14th but nothing since then I cannot sign in as it says it doesn’t exist Image

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Did you set up this email as an Alias? if yes,
The error "Microsoft Account does not exist" usually means:

1. You are logging in using an Alias.

- If the user renamed the affected email address into a new account, the original account will become an Alias. Thus, logging in using the original account (Alias) will trigger the system to prompt the user that it does not exist.

>>> The solution is to log in using the new account.

Regards

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Thank you but no it is not an alias, this is my very 1st email I made over 20 years ago and have used my whole digital life. I have 9 emails in all, business and other things like airbnbs etc but always had this as my personal one, I made a new personal one about 4 years ago which I now use but this original one I still use for signing up to things (so I don't get spammed in my new personal email) so it is connected to all my accounts, apple google spotify ebay all of them.

Im upset that there is no way to get help from microsoft, no option other than " We couldn't find an account with that username. Try another, or get a new Microsoft account. this doesnt help me and all help and support links are just info pages, FAQ's and pages like this

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Thank you for your response Catherine.

Although my response will sound very frustrating but, Once you encounter the error that the email address (account) does not exist, it means that the email address has been permanently deleted. Once that happens, there is absolutely no chance to recover that email address - it is permanently gone and there are no exceptions to that Microsoft policy under any circumstances.

This can easily happen if your account got hacked and the hacker added a new alias address to the account, made that the

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This has just happened to me. I don't understand the whole "alias" idea. Does that mean I have been hacked and all the hotmail emails are going to the hacker?

Are there security measures I need to do?

I can't believe my 25 year old hotmail account is gone! Yet there is an email still on the page which is weird. It has a lot of numbers but it is an outlook email.

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I'm having the same problem!

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Me, too! Same problem..end of September 2023, cannot open on Thunderbird but other emails are there. What happened?

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Last updated April 12, 2025 Views 7,174 Applies to: