Email change, Microsoft account - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: AussieBruce
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 01:58:53 am
content: I've just changed my ISP for more or less unavoidable reasons, and need to attend to my MS account, which has my (old) email address as the account name. The account is the repository for quite a lot of MS products, and it would be a disaster if I broke it. I've done some web searching, including MS information sources, but nothing so far makes me comfortable.Can anyone provide any info on what to do in this situation? Thanks in advance.

author: Shonky
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 05:27:38 am
content: Can't you just change the email address on the account? The email address is essentially just your user name (and used for recovery), not an actual email address that receives email.

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 07:18:14 am
content: Quote from: AussieBruce on August 13, 2023, 01:58:53 amWhen you say, "need to attend to my MS account, which has my (old) email address as the account name", what are you saying exactly? Are you saying you have to log in using your old email as the user name? Certainly there is a way to change this once you log into your MS account. You probably should have done this before you dropped the old ISP. Or do you still have that account as well? If so, it should be easy, peasy.I isolate my email from all the uncontrolled factors, by owning a domain name, arius.com. My email is all at arius.com and is routed through the ISP. If I change ISP, the current account is backed up at the old ISP and restored at the new ISP. No fuss, no muss. To provide for backup and better spam filtering, I route all my emails through a gmail account. When the ISP is down, I can view my emails at the gmail account... depending.

author: HwAoRrDk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 09:08:42 am
content: I've been through this. You cannot change the username of your MS account, so you're stuck with the old email address as the username. It's stupidly infuriating.You can change the email address associated with the account, so all communication will go to the new address, but you're stuck with the old username. Just have to hope going forward no-one ever tries to use the username as an email address.

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 09:12:06 am
content: Quote from: HwAoRrDk on August 13, 2023, 09:08:42 amSorry, I have no idea what you are talking about. You talk about an "MS account", but with no context. Why do you care what the user name is? What do you actually mean by "username". Are you talking about the full email address, or just the part in front of the @?I'm just not getting what the problem is.

author: HwAoRrDk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 12:29:56 pm
content: You know, aMicrosoft Account. An account required to access all sorts of MS services. For example, purchase Windows apps from the Microsoft Store, use Teams video-conferencing, Outlook.com email, play Minecraft, register Visual Studio, Xbox, etc.The situation goes like so:1. Many years past you sign up for an MS account using me@example-isp.com.au as your e-mail address, which becomes your account's username.2. You change ISP or it goes out of business, and you no longer have that e-mail address.3. You can change the associated display name and e-mail addresses (what MS term 'aliases') on your MS account, but you can never change the canonical username, which is forever stuck as me@example-isp.com.au. Even if example-isp.com.au no longer exists.I did a bit of digging in case things have changed (it was several years ago I went through this), and according tothisyou can log in with any one of your 'alias' e-mail addresses instead of the canonical username, so I suppose nowadays it makes no practical difference, but it still bugs me.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 01:21:15 pm
content: But it is the same thing with Digikey, UPS, FedEx, etc. For those ones to log in you have to use the email account name which was used to create the account. The contact email you can change but login one you can't.

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 02:11:49 pm
content: Quote from: HwAoRrDk on August 13, 2023, 12:29:56 pmI know nothing of MS accounts. I will never willingly have an MS account, so I have zero interest in learning about them.From what you say, the "email" address you opened the account with, is just a name. Then there is the actual email address MS sends email to. It's not clear to me if changing the email address the account was opened with is cut off from access when it is changed in the email setting. Most likely, but we are talking about MS, after all.

author: gnuarm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 02:13:55 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on August 13, 2023, 01:21:15 pmUPS is so retarded, that I can't even change my mailing address. I moved from the mainland to Puerto Rico, which is a US territory. All mail addresses are USPS addresses, served by the USPS. Yet, UPS required me to open a new account to change my address to Puerto Rico! What lame brains.

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2023, 02:26:38 pm
content: Quote from: AussieBruce on August 13, 2023, 01:58:53 amIt will allow you to change your account ID. You have to edit your account preferences. It will send you a security code to your alternate email address to allow you to do this. I just tried it. I removed my email address and substituted "youremail.xxx".This is the screen you will see when you enter the security code back on the Microsoft site (it's waiting for you there to enter the code).Manage how you sign in to MicrosoftAn account alias is an email address or phone number that you use to sign in to your Microsoft account. You can have multiple aliases, and use any of them with Microsoft services such as Outlook.com, Skype, OneDrive, Office, Xbox, Windows and more.Your account's primary alias is displayed on your Microsoft devices (such as a Windows PC, Xbox, or Windows Phone), and you can choose a different alias to be the primary one at any time. Learn more about account aliases.Account aliasyouremail.xxxRemoveAdd emailAdd phone number

author: AussieBruce
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2023, 04:24:00 am
content: Thanks to any of the respondents that happen to read this response. The situation is resolved, the following might assist anyone who needs to do the same thing.I went to the MS Australia tech support page, and selected Chat. That put me through to another page where I was asked to enter a summary of my problem, my heart sank, but I tried, and up came some options to select, the top one was my situation exactly. I selected it, and was stepped through the procedure in easy stages from then on. The system picked up the ID of my account (my old email) and asked for my password. Once in, the requisite form came up, complete with a clear explanation. It was just a matter of entering my new email as an alias, making it my primary alias and deleting the old email address. For entering the new alias there was a confirmation step to my new email.It all went so smoothly that I was gobsmacked, and still am. This is MICROSOFT, FGS. How could they make it so easy??