Paul will I be able to keep all my games acquired from the windows store and all achievements. Also can this method help against spam emails from pirate ? Thank you again, very informative video.
Yeah, all of your achievements and purchases remain as it is still technically the same account. This process is just changing the email address you sign in with. You can use it to get rid of an old email address that gets a lot of spam, but I would suggest keeping the old one around for a couple of months or so to make sure you don't have anything important being sent to the old address. Just make the new address your primary and the remove the old after you are sure. You can also jump over to Outlook and set up a rule so that any email sent to your old address goes to a particular folder. That can help you filter out what services are still sending email to your old address whilst starting to use your new address as your main one.
I wanted to personally thank you. I was getting unsuccessful sign in from China like 4 days a week for the last 6 month and it started really making me nervous how obsessed they were in trying to get in. Now I only use my new Alias to sign in that I am keeping to myself so when they try my old one it shows up as email not existing. It gives such a peace of mind.
That's awesome to hear that you were able to use this to resolve the issue. Glad I could help! ☺️ I used to see people have similar issues to what you were experiencing in one of my previous jobs. Which was part of why I made the video in the first place.
Cant thank you enough , had my gmail doxed ( competitive gaming rival couldn't take the loss and move on ) and kept getting people try to guess my passcode even with security measures , Changing the alias Helped a ton , Thank You!
Wow! I'm sorry to hear you experienced that. That's something pretty intense to have to go through. I'm glad my tips helped. Something that I have done personally to avoid this is to create an alias, set it as my primary, but then go to my sign in options and remove my other aliases from the available sign in options. The other aliases are still there on my account so they work for email etc, they just can no longer be used to sign in to the account. I never hand out this new alias to anyone so there is no way anyone can use it to try to get into my account. It's a little bit of a process, but it means my Microsoft Account stays secure.
@7prudent - Unfortunately, adding an alias to a Gmail account in a similar manner to this video is not possible. I have been looking into alternative options to get a similar result, but nothing I have seen implies this is possible.
@Puggleglum - I highly advise against using a third party email address as the username to your Microsoft Account if you can at all avoid it. I have seen far too many instances of this causing issues down the road. As for the sync attempts etc, that should have no bearing on your ability to change your Alias etc. But you should note that there is a maximum number of times you can change this (I believe it is twice per week). If you have hit this limit already, it will error out. And if you already have a total of 10 Aliases, you will not be able to add more as that is the maximum number allowed on an account.
If i wanted to change the email to an existing email that is in use still and linked to important stuff will I still have access to both emails forever and nothing else changes but the primary alias? Thank you, very helpful!
If you use this process to create a new alias, as long as you don't delete the old address you will still have the ability to use either. And any emails sent to either will end up in the same inbox. 👍
@@paulomalleyyeah ok so the existing email is already associated with another Microsoft account, I’m trying to it make that existing email linked with my second Microsoft account changes onto my main account and remove existing email from main account? Sorry if I’m being confusing
Ahhh. Then unfortunately you can't use that one in this process. There is no way to merge two separate Microsoft accounts. And Microsoft doesn't recycle addresses either, so if the second account was closed completely at some point in the future, you still would not be able to add it to the first account. It's been this way since back around the time when Microsoft bought Skype (maybe even earlier). Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this one. 🫠
I actually love you dude thanks for this video because I been recently hacked and I been trying to prevent it but ever since I found your video it’s been helping me ever since but all asides thanks.
Yes. The idea with this process is that you are creating an alias for your existing account and then removing the old one. All of the data in the account remains. If you want to, you can also leave the old alias on the account if you want to still receive emails with it. This is great if you want to change and use the new address but still have the old one available just in case. All emails will come to the same inbox since they are just aliases for the same account.
@@paulomalley can I still recieve e-mails to the old one (original one), but just opt out the signing in option with it? (it is associated with bank accounts etc too so I do not want it to be like "do not exist anymore") My mail is constantly under attack that I am thinking about adding an alias (an e-mail that only one person knows).
Absolutely! 😁 That is actually exactly what I do myself. I have a total of three aliases for my account but only one can be used to sign in and it isn't the one I give out to people (so only I know it). To do this, you just need to make the new alias your primary one and then you will be able to untick the other aliases in the sign in options. The other aliases will continue to act as email addresses as normal provided you don't remove them from your account. Basically all the email for all aliases comes into the one inbox. 😁👍
Thankyou for this! I actually don't want to delete my initial primary email address i just want to be able to rename it (my original email is embarrassing as i created it when i was 15 and still using it til this day at 39). I folllowed the steps without deleting my primary alias and can receive emails to my original email address and the added email address too. This means i don't have to tell new people my old embarrassing email address haha
My complete and absolute pleasure! Glad it helped you! This is something that I used to help people with in one of my old jobs, so I figured it's easier now if I can just point to a video... 😹
@@paulomalley Absolutely, but you do it the right way. No fluff, easy to understand, cadence is perfect... A+ my friend. Looking forward to catching up on all your videos now that I've... Subscribed! ✔😎🥳
I keep getting emails about failed sign in attempts. I want to change my login name but retain the "same" email address since I use it on so many websites for logging in. If I change the alias will I have to remember the new alias or is that only for signing in? Can I still have emails sent to the old address using the old address? I basically just want to stop the login attempts I otherwise want to keep the same email and not have to keep remembering I changed it, except when logging into microsoft of course.
Yeah, this is absolutely possible to do. I have done this personally to avoid my main address getting leaked. You would follow the steps to create an alias, set it as your primary, but then instead of deleting the old address, you just go to your sign in options and remove the other aliases from the available sign in options. The other aliases are still there on your account so they work for email etc, they just can no longer be used to sign in to the account. I never hand out my new primary alias to anyone so there is no way anyone can use it to try to get into my account. It's a little bit of a process, but it means your Microsoft Account stays secure.
@@paulomalley Yes just what was I looking for. If they don't know my username since its never broadcast I won't be a target. I am getting tired of being forced to constantly change my password.,
Yes. Using the steps here will keep all account content. You can test this yourself by creating the new alias and setting it as default but not removing the original. You would then use the new address to sign into the Xbox. Once you confirm all is as expected, you can then remove the old address. I've had to do this before myself and DEFINITELY did not want to lose my Gamerscore and purchases. Feel free to add me if you like. GT: paulomalley
my account email was hacked at one time and now they try to login more than 100 times a day from diferent parts of the world and that keeps blokin my sign ins, in theory can i change only the login account and keep recieving my emails on to my old email?
Yeah, absolutely. If you create an alias and set it as the Primary one, you can then remove your actual email address from the list of options that can be used to sign into the account in you sign in options page. This is how I have my personal account set up right now actually. Nicely done with spotting this, few people realise this is an option. You will still receive email to the account like normal, you will just use the new email address to sign into it. Keep that address to yourself and no one should be able to make a sign in attempt again. Also, make sure you have 2FA enabled so you can better block any attempts that do get made.
Yes, that should be fine. Your office installation should not be affected. If you have linked it to your current address, then that's perfect as it will still be linked to your Microsoft account when you change the primary address.
At the end of the video, you say it will take some time for the e-mail address in the account to update. It did so almost immediately in my case! However, in the desktop app for Outlook, Skype, Word, ... (all Office products) I still see my old e-mail address... Will that be updated automatically later on, or do I have to do some other steps for that? I set my new Outlook-adress as primary adress without deleting the old one, as I have a Microsoft pack (not a subscription) linked to it and don't want to risk troubles.
I was more referring to the changed propagating visually to all the other services of Microsoft. It is purely a visual thing here and more mentioned just to ease people's minds if they still see the old address sometimes over the first day or so. As for your email clients and things like that, it would really depend on the particular email client etc. Generally speaking, if the visual of the old address doesn't bother you, you can leave it as you have it now. But if you want to ensure that visually it shows the new address, the easiest way is to sign out and back in again to that client so that it syncs and pulls the most up to date information about your account.
@@paulomalley Thanks for the quick reply! I changed it just because it bothered me - a spelling error in my own name due to a mistake in the store... I did log out and back in with the new one. It worked, except for Outlook. It's the new one in the account info, but the old one in the inbox. I removed it and added it again and now it's okay! Thank you so much for the clear video. You just ended 15 years of frustrations 😂
Will my account still be safer if I add an email that only 1 or 2 persons know and which is also used for some mobile games etc? I do not remember if I have any website accounts created with it. Still, my outlook account is constantly under attack (it is a pretty old one) that I believe it would still be safer? Also, how can I check if there are sign-in attempts to a gmail account?
You can view sign in attempts for your Google Account here: myaccount.google.com/security You can use the gmail account as your sign in for an MSA, but I highly suggest against it. It will be easier, faster and have less chance of issues in the future if you create a new outlook based alias to use. This also greatly decreases the chances of the account being compromised as no one else except you will know this new address.
@@paulomalleythank you so much for the reply. Do you mean I should check the "create a new account" option? Else where, I read people strongly suggesting against it, so I am really confused right now. (I mean in your video you say do not click on "create new account" at the beginning- that's where I am confused:) About the gmail one, it only shows me the successful log-ins in the last 28 days, not the attempts. :s
@@paulomalley also since I still want to use my original e-mail adress, I don't need to remove it from the account alieses, right? I will only uncheck it from the sign-in preferences. (As I said above, some people suggest against creating a new account, but I do not know why. Will my security settings still be the same as for the original adress, or will I need to change the settings from the scratch for the new e-mail address?)
Apologies for the confusion, do not use the "Create New Account" option from the log in page. I am saying to follow the steps in the video, but not to use your Gmail address as the new alias for your account. I am saying to create the alias using the steps shown in the video which will create a new outlook.com address that is attached to your existing account. As for the Google sign in thing, it seems that Google only shows recent security related items on that page now. But this would include failed sign in attempts. If you ensure that you have 2FA enabled on your account (ideally using an authenticator app), you should be safe in this instance.
@@paulomalley thank you so much. I did not know it would create an account just attached to it. About the gmail part. I use a phone number, not an app. Seriously, I have never tried using any, and I have no idea which one is good, how to use etc. :)
This is such a great video! - quick question. If I leave the original email address on the account after making the new 1 the primary, will this mean the email to log in will only be the new primary one or could the old email address still used to log in? My account is under attack so im trying to get rid of this email as the log in but still have it available for emails to authorise email address changes to facebook, banking etc
That is the case if you leave the address attached to the account, but there is a way around this. After you create the new address, you can then go to your Sign In Preferences and toggle off the old address so that only the new address can be used to sign into your account from that point onwards. The old email address will still exist and receive emails, but will no longer be able to be used for sign in. EDIT: And thanks for the kind words too... I appreciate it.
Speaking of security. What do you suggest about TH-cam channel account e-mails? I mean, do you suggest using your usual, but a secured personal mail attached to it, or, is it better to migrate the channel to another account for security?
So if l make new address as primary and delete old one, l have to sign in all accounts with new one? Like amazon, samsung tv, samsung phone, ps5, microsoft acc.my laptop, dropbox and so on and l will keep all my date infos and everything. Thank you
The accounts that you've created at other services such as Amazon and Sony etc will not change. So if you have signed up using your original Microsoft account email address, I would not recommend removing it from your account just yet. You can still create a new address and set that as the primary one for your Microsoft account, but as long as you don't remove the old address you will still be able to receive emails with it. If you then want to update your accounts at Amazon and Sony etc. to use your new address instead, you can do that, but I would not recommend removing the old address first in your case, as it could potentially prevent you from being able to recover those other accounts if you forget your details for them.
Question if you have a moment would creating an alias and setting said alias as the primary allow you to keep your one drive as is I want to do this as people keep trying to log in to my account but everything is backed up to the silly one drive that quite honestly I hate and I don't want to lose my files
Oh not a problem at all. That is exactly what will happen. Your account itself doesn't change, only the address that you use to sign in etc. This process is perfect for fixing your issue. You won't lose any of the data in your OneDrive etc.
@paulomalley a couple more questions, will the one drive automatically switch over to the new log in or will I need to log out and log back into 'continue' syncing? Also will the new login automatically have my two factor authentication enabled or does that need to be added as well as I have an app for two factor
It will automatically switch over for you and your 2FA will remain the same. Basically, at the heart of it, all you are doing is changing the username for your account. Everything else stays the same.
Great question! You will not lose any purchases tied to the account by doing this. You are basically just changing the username of the account in essence (no difference to changing the username on your Instagram account). The demo account I use in the video in fact has a Microsoft 365 Family subscription linked to it.
I have a question regarding this. If I did this with a brand new email (whether it be from Outlook or another email service) would this, in theory, cut down on all the unsuccessful sign in attempts I am getting and unsuccessful sync attempts (whatever an unsuccessful sync is) And 2) when looking at my account, I have 2 current Alias. One is the email (which I can remove and what not). The other is a screen name that I cannot remove but I can deactivate. Is there anyway to remove the screen name Alias?
This process would theoretically cut down on the number of unsuccessful attempts as people would not be able to use that email address to sign in anymore. When it comes to your account name that you can't remove, what you can do though, is actually go into your sign-in options, which is another option in amongst the account settings for your Microsoft account and you can toggle on or off individual usernames or email addresses that can be used for signing in. All you should need to do is toggle off the ones that you don't want to be used for signing in. That will prevent people from being able to use that one for an unsuccessful attempt. Just keep in mind that you won't be able to toggle off the address that is your primary Alias.
@@paulomalley I appreciate the quick reply. Very kind of you. As a quick follow up to the second question, do you know why there would be an account alias I cannot remove? I have already deactivated it so that is good but it is odd I cannot remove it.
It's possible that the Account name is an old Xbox Gamertag or Skype Username. If so, you likely can't fully remove those from your account, but you should be able to remove it from your sign in options at least.
so i did this and afterwards i havent been able to download or update anything from microsoft store from that account on any device and theres a few other smaller errors too
That shouldn't be an issue related to the change of your primary alias as it isn't changing anything about your account itself. I would suggest restarting your computer as this can sometimes force it to refresh your Microsoft Account details when you sign in again. This usually resolved itself within 48 hours in my experience. If you are continuing to have issues with the Microsoft Store after this, let me know as there is some other troubleshooting you can do to fix the store.
I have received an email from Microsoft, titled "Update your sign-in technology before September 16th, 2024 to maintain email access." If I follow the steps in the video, will I still maintain my email access and connections to Xbox account, Ubisoft account and etc. by September?
If you got that email, you are likely currently using an email or calendar app that uses a less secure authentication method to connect to your Outlook.com email account. You will need to upgrade your third-party mail and calendar app to a version which supports modern authentication methods such as the Outlook Mobile Application or change your sign in option for apps like Gmail to a modern alternative (as they support modern auth via IMAP). The common cause for this is if you have set up your Microsoft Account address as an exchange account in the Gmail app or similar (which helps sync more items, but uses an old authentication method). This method is no longer being supported. As for my video, changing your alias etc here doesn't really have any bearing on the email you got, nor your access to your email.
Yeah, that's why a lot of people recommend using a password manager to manage it all whilst still ensuring it is secure. Personally, I use 1Password, but there are many other options out there also.
Hey! So I have this Xbox account that I’ve been using since I was younger and am locked out of the gmail account that is the primary Alias. I recently updated my Microsoft security info and added my current email and phone number to be able to access my Microsoft account easier. I have another Microsoft account attached to that same current email as I have tried to use it to become the new alias, however it won’t let me and says “email already in use”. Probably because the same email can’t be the Alias of two Microsoft accounts? Alternatively I created a completely new gmail and added it as an additional alias, but when I try to make it the primary, it said I must verify that I own it. When I try and verify it using the link sent in the email, I get “your email address was not verified” “This email address couldn't be verified because the wrong Microsoft account may have been entered. Try signing in with another Microsoft account.” Is it possible to verify an email without access to the original Alias email? Or am I doing something wrong?
Hey Jeff! Thanks for commenting. You’ve definitely got a bit of a tricky situation here, but let’s walk through it step by step. Little bit of warning, this is going to be a long one... First off, great job updating your security info with your current email and phone number-that’s an important step! Now, about the issue you’re having with setting your current email as the primary alias: you’re right, you can’t use the same email address as a primary alias on multiple Microsoft accounts. That’s likely why you’re getting the “email already in use” error. Microsoft doesn’t allow the same email to be the alias for two different accounts, which can cause the type of confusion you’re experiencing. Now, for your primary alias, I generally recommend using an Outlook.com email instead of an external provider like Gmail. This avoids exactly the issue you’re facing-if you lose access to the external email (like your Gmail), it can make things difficult to manage. With an Outlook.com email as your primary alias, you’d have more control and clarity over which account you’re logging into, and it could save you from some future headaches. As for the verification issue you’re encountering when trying to switch your primary alias to the new Gmail account you created: it’s possible that your browser is automatically signing you into the wrong Microsoft account when you click the verification link. I’d suggest trying this process again, but this time use an incognito or in-private browsing window. That way, the browser won’t automatically log you in to the wrong account, and you can manually log in with the correct account. Lastly, regarding your Gmail account that you’re locked out of, it’s important to regain access to that account if possible. Without it, verifying or switching aliases can be quite difficult. If you’re unable to recover that Gmail, then setting up a new Outlook.com alias for your Xbox account and making it your primary might be your best bet. Hopefully, this helps you get things sorted! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hey quick question, I recently started using my sisters laptop and it has her email under microsoft account, i wanted to change it to my new email alias that i had created. I wanted to transfer it to the new alias that had been created. Is it possible?
You don't need to do that. There's an ability inside Windows to remove the Microsoft account from the user profile and convert it over to a local account. Once you've converted the account over to a local account, you can then simply connect your Microsoft account to the user profile, and then you'll be using your account to sign in instead of hers. The best part here is that there's no changes that happen to your user profile or any other programs you have installed. Everything will stay exactly the same, except that you'll then be signing into Windows with your Microsoft account. Here's a link to the Microsoft documentation page which details the steps on how to do this. support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-from-a-local-account-to-a-microsoft-account-395203bf-9f1b-eb24-b042-5b8dae6c1d20
Paul I need some help… I need to change me Xbox account from my now not stepdad’s email to a new one. I only know the email but not the password and I don’t know if this is still possible as I have NO two-factor authentication to use
I spent some time looking around to see if things had changed but unfortunately they have not. There is no way to move an Xbox account across to a different Microsoft account. As a long time Xbox gamer myself, it hurts me to say this, but the only real option is to start fresh with a new Xbox account that is tied to your own Microsoft account. This unfortunately means losing your Gamerscore and any digital games that are tied to the old account. But it will prevent any issues in future. NOTE: And for any parents seeing this in the future, please don't use your Microsoft account for your children's Xbox accounts. Create their own account as a child account (you can link it to your parent account for parental control etc) and that way when they get older, they will have their own account already set up. No issues etc.
Sir i had gotten Microsoft office and student at the time of purchasing laptop. But now i forgot the linked Gmail id as i have many ID's before. What should i do now to get my ms office account back.
Unfortunately, the process in my video will not be of much use to you here as you still need access to the original account in order to use this process. There is the form to attempt a password reset/recovery of your account, but this is an automated process and you still need to know and have access to the email address you used for it. There is no support team at Microsoft that can manually recover accounts (this is a privacy thing). Provided you are able to regain access to your account, you would be able to use this process to create a new alias which would make it easier to remember in future as it would be an Outlook email address.
It will, but only if you do not delete the old address entirely. You can create a new address and set it as the primary one, and as long as the old address is still there, any emails sent to it will come to your inbox as normal.
All of your security options shall stay the same for things like Two Factor Authentication etc, but you may be prompted to sign in again with your account details just to reauthenticate the account. You would use your new details for that.
Can I just check that when doing this and using a new outlook alias, it actually creates a real outlook account as well for emails etc? I am in the process of wanting to create a new outlook email entirely as my gmail is now overrun with spam. Before watching this video I created an outlook separately and then realised I had messed up as I couldn't then use it as an alias! Thanks
Any additional aliases you add here will work as email addresses. All email sent to them arrives at your main inbox. You can also set up rules so that any email sent to "Alias1" goes to a specific folder... It's a great way to filter out junk.
@@paulomalley Amazing, thanks mate! So it is the same as creating a new outlook account, just this way you're linking it to an xbox account at the same time?
Can I still use my old Alias to Microsoft office if I deleted it? Because I read online that you can still use your old primary alias/Email when using MS office.
If you have deleted it from the account, then it technically no longer exists. I would suggest heading back to your Alias settings and attempt to re add that address to your account. I am not personally sure if you can do that, but I believe you should be able to. In your case, you would need to have the address still set up as one of your aliases, but use the new address as the primary one for the account. That way, any email being sent to the old address will still come through to you.
If you have already added the alias to your account, you can follow the steps shown in the video straight the time you referenced. It shows the steps to remove an alias from your account. Just keep in mind that you can't remove the Primary Alias of your account without first switching to a different one.
Yeah, I think I understand what you are saying. I cover how to remove an alias in the video from about 03:20 onwards. If you don't have any other alias to make your primary one first, then you will need to follow the earlier steps in the video first to set up a second alias to change your primary one into.
Hi Paul. Firstly thank you for posting this,really clear & easy to follow 👍 My question,and I expect you’ve already answered it… I have an old tiscali account,it’s about 15yo & I use it only for Xbox. My problem is that it no longer receives emails & Xbox now require a phone number to claim Microsoft reward points. My email won’t let me verify & so I can’t put in a phone number. My wife’s email is down as a contact & when I tried to verify it she got a code but to verify it,it had to send an email to my email that doesn’t receive!!! If I follow this process will it 1) Allow me to change primary if old account isn’t verified 2) Will it need to send me an email to complete the process or will I just be able to do it as shown in your video Sorry it’s long. This has been giving me nightmares for months as I have loads of reward points & im desperate not to lose them!
I have a feeling that you will likely need to verify the account in order to add an additional alias to your account, but once done, you would be able to use your account as normal. If that is the case, it might be worth trying to set up a different verification option for your wife's account (such as a 2FA app or similar) so that you can use that to then verify your account and set up the new alias.
PS SORRY MATE ! So I get this message: For security reasons,you need to verify your primary alias before you can add another alias. Alternatively, you could rename your primary alias. So then I’m my info it shows my email address & next to it, it says rename then verify. I’ve tried the verify but that doesn’t work as it has to send me an email❌ It no longer has option to add email or remove,I think maybe because I tried to add my wife’s email as an alias but couldn’t receive the confirmation email 🤦♂️ Do you possibly know if rename the same thing as what you’ve shown in this video & if so would you know if it requires sending me confirmation to my old email address!!! Again sorry if this is confusing & a bit long…It ain’t half stressing me out 😅
@@paulomalleythank you so much for getting back so quickly,I was just adding a PS as you sent it. Wishful thinking that it would be so easy 😂 Thank you for your help buddy
No worries. Renaming isn't something I have run into myself, but I assume it's pretty much doing the same thing as creating an alias. Hopefully configuring the backup security option for your wife's account will be a solution...
@@paulomalley I’ll have to look into that. Atm I can’t get past the verification but as a confirmation email was sent to my email so it’s stuck on that every time I select verify…That was like 4 months ago😂 I’ll just have to try the rename & 🙏🏼 😂 Thanks again Paul,I’ve subscribed,you seem a to bloke.
Yeah, it just depends on what options you have configured for your account. I generally recommend using options other than SMS as text message is the least secure method available for this.
You can't add an address to a Microsoft account that is already a Microsoft account. So if you're trying to add an outlook.com account to your existing Outlook.com account, this is not possible. That's why I specifically say at the beginning of my video to not create a new account with the address that you want to use. Because you can't merge Microsoft accounts together.
Unfortunately not. You would need to use the account recovery options to try and regain access to your account. If you are able to do so, you should absolutely be using a strong, unique password as well as setting up and using two factor authentication in order to protect your account against things like this.
Removing the old address from the account makes the address useless. It won't technically delete the old address, as you can always re add it to your account later on if you need to, but you won't get emails sent to that address after you remove it.
Correct. Your subscription is tied to the account. You can imagine this process as similar to changing your username on Instagram. You aren't changing the account itself, just the name you use to sign in to it.
You can switch it to a Gmail account address as the username, as long as that address is not already associated with a Microsoft Account. I don't recommend using an email address other than a Microsoft one such as outlook.com personally, but it can be done.
Can you still use the same email address that you used as primary for Microsoft? Because someone was trying to hack my account using my primary alias or email and I'm afraid they might steal my email address and use it as their new Microsoft alias if I delete it.
You don't need to delete the old address from your list of Aliases. That way no one else can claim it in future. But if you want to prevent anyone from being able to use the old address to sign into your account, you can visit the "Sign In Preferences" for your account and just untick the old address. That way the address is still yours but can no longer be used to sign into the Microsoft Account itself. This is how I have my personal account set up right now actually.
@@paulomalley Ok but can they make a new MS account using my old primary alias if I deleted it? Because they know my Email login info except the pw because I've already changed it.
I alluded to it in my other reply for you, but I do believe that they would be able to create a new account with the address as you are technically no longer using it. But you should be able to follow the steps from the video again in order to add it back to your account as an alias. Just follow my other suggestion of not making it the primary address and untick it as an option for signing in.
No. This is not possible. Both accounts are Microsoft Accounts already and you cannot merge them. This is what I refer to at around 00:50 in the video.
I was wondering. I added my new alias to the Microsoft account, but the old name won't disappear. Do I have to wait longer? Edit: The second alias is still there.
When you say "the old name won't disappear", what exactly do you mean? Can you provide me with a little more detail (but obviously please don't share personally identifiable information if possible). Hopefully then I can help. If you have set a new alias as your Primary one, it can take a couple of days potentially before the new Primary alias is being shown across your device. If you didn't set the new one as Primary, than the address you see when logged in to devices such as Windows will not change. This is because devices like Windows, Xbox etc will only display the Primary address.
@@paulomalley, I was discussing the old name and its relation to the old alias. Will that disappear if I get rid of the old alias? I didn't get rid of the old one to be sure, then I checked and saw my new alias appearing, but the old name to the old alias was still there. I didn't want the old name being there and wanted it to be the new name correlated with the new alias. Would that be the go-ahead to get rid of the old alias?
The name that you're seeing for your account will be the same as what it was currently for the old Alias. And that's because you haven't changed anything else about the account except for the Alias that you're used to sign into it. If you want to change the name that is associated with your Microsoft account, you need to do that in the your info page and then edit your account name. account.microsoft.com/profile
You should simply be able to re add that alias to your account as it is linked to the account it was originally created on. As for deleted emails, that's substantially harder, and honestly may not be possible.
Yeah, follow the steps at the beginning of the video here on how to add the alias back to your account. Just keep in mind that it needs to be added back to the same account it was attached to originally.
If your games were purchased through the Microsoft Store or similar, your saved files are generally linked to your account. Even Steam has the ability to upload your saved files now. At that point, you would just need to log back into your account in order to access your games again.
I want to set another primary alias and delete the old one but it said that i cant change it. Even i add email or outlook account in it. Do you know why is it and how can i change the alias.
If you are following the instructions as shown in the video, there should be no reason for it not to work. Can you provide more context around when the error occurs and what it says specifically? Just keep in mind that you can't add an existing Microsoft account address as an alias, so you cannot add any existing Outlook account (only creating a new one as shown in the video will work).
@@paulomalleyof course i followed your instructions. Both Outlook account and the email is not an existing Microsoft account. It say to me that "We were unable to make your primary alias. Please try again later." I've just log in and want to change alias and it say that. And i also tried to change it 2 month ago but it also say like that. Do you have any solution?
Thank you for confirming that for me, I appreciate it. Can you please also confirm one more thing for me... Is your current Primary Alias one of the following: @hotmail, @live.com, or @msn.com? If this is the case, that would likely be the root cause of the issue. If this is the case, I do not believe you will be able to change the primary alias of the account without help from Microsoft Support as there is a process on the backend that prevents the system from converting the current Primary Alias into a regular Alias.
The account will be deleted straight away once removed from your account. The visual change can take some time to populate across the systems though. A good thing to note though is that MSFT does not reuse aliases, so you don't need to worry about others being able to claim that address later either.
@@paulomalley I have deleted the account and already 30 days passed so its closed But when i search for my gamertag ( xbox account) its still appear do you know when it will be deleted?
Your gamer tag will still exist unless you fully close the Microsoft account that it is connected to entirely. Simply changing the email address (like I describe in this video) won't delete the account. Unless you are looking to fully delete the Microsoft Account too (and everything associated with it)? If that is the case, then you can head to aka.ms/closeaccount and follow the steps there. As part of this process there is a drop down where you can choose either 30 or 60 days as the time window where you will be able to prevent the account from being deleted should you change your mind. The default is 60 days.
@@paulomalley Yes I know , I have closed the microsoft account and everything associated with it But after the closing of the account and 30 days passed my xbox account is still appear to me, I don't know what happened when it should be closed with the microsoft account I closed
@@Daistura I wonder if the reason you see it still is because it was yours originally. If you are comfortable with it, you can share the GT with me and I will see if I can search it on my end. If you don't wish to share it here on TH-cam, I have my Telegram etc linked on my Bento page which can be found on my channel page.
Unfortunately no. That isn't possible. Microsoft doesn't reuse account aliases, and so there is no option to unmerge them into separate accounts. This is also the reason why you can't merge two separate accounts into one.
@@paulomalleywhat do you mean by you cannot unmerge them into two separate accounts? I am thinking of already actively used e-mail of mine as an alias to my microsoft account for security reasons. So, will my other e-mail (which is not a microsoft/outlook account) get affected by this? Even if I use another website to log-in and check that e-mail's inbbox?
This is referring to someone having two aliases for the one Microsoft account that are both Outlook.com addresses for example. It is not possible to later on split these into two separate Microsoft accounts. That is all. Your other email address won't get affected in any way if it isn't a Microsoft account if I am understanding you correctly. Keep in mind though, if your non Microsoft account address that you are looking to add is a work address, this can cause issues signing in if the work address is a commercial Microsoft account. I highly recommend that you create a new outlook.com address as the new alias to avoid any potential issues down the line. I used to troubleshoot this sort of thing FAR too often...
@@paulomalley no, the one I thought about adding was a gmail account, but after reading your comments, creating a new account attached to the original address seems to be the best option. However, can I later permanently delete/erase that added alias account (by this method)?
The password to your Microsoft Account doesn't change when following these steps. It would still be the same as it always is. There is also no real way to remove a Microsoft Account from a PC without being able to sign into the device (aside from a factory reset which wipes everything). If you mean you have forgotten the password to the account, you can simply go through the password reset process online. Head to account.microsoft.com and select the Forgot Password option. Once you have changed the password there, you will be able to use the new password to sign into your computer (provided it is connected to the internet). Hope this helps.
Your Minecraft account should be fine as the Microsoft account is still the same. If you want to be 100% sure, you can just skip the part of deleting the old address. Just create the new address and set it as your primary one. The old address will still be there and work as normal, but will just be a secondary alias for your new one.
No,. This process does not delete any of your emails or data. The only thing it does is change your primary sign in address for the account. Everything else stays the same.
Apologies, but I don't quite understand what you mean by "delete emails" here. Are you meaning that you are not able to delete an email alias from your account like I show in the video? Or do you mean that when you delete emails in an app or similar, they aren't being deleted? If it is the second one, can you please provide more details such as the device and app you are using?
There are restrictions on how many changes you can make to a Microsoft Account within a set period. This is to prevent bad actors from making too many changes to an account (usually spammers etc). I would suggest to give it a few days and try to change the primary alias then.
That really all depends on how long it's been since you last changed it. There are limits on the number of changes that you can make to your account in a period of time... - You can add up to 10 alias in a year, including any alias that you have added and removed before. - A limit of new aliases that can be created in one year of 10 aliases - For the short-term limit, you can only change the alias twice a week.
It won't delete the data attached to the account, but I wouldn't recommend using someone else's account. It's always recommended to create and use your own account. If you were to switch the email address to this account and remove the other one, then your mother would not be able to log into the account. The data will be there, but she wouldn't have access to it.
That's a tough one to diagnose then, but I would suggest starting off by trying again in a "In Private" or "Incognito" window. This ensures that nothing else like Cookies or Extensions is messing it up.
@@paulomalley hey bro just got it. I tried vpn for some reason and didn’t seem to work. Then I tried using Edge browser instead of chrome (logged into my account), and it went through.
If the Microsoft account email address does not exist, you can not change it's address. If you mean that you are being asked for two factor authentication and your authentication address no longer exists, then you will need to use the account recovery options to attempt to restore access to the account. There is no easy way around that as it is a security thing.
Would I be correct in assuming that your Microsoft account is not connected to an outlook.com or hotmail.com address? Because otherwise, I don't know how you would be able to have an account that doesn't have an email address that exists. If that's the case, then technically you can still sign into the Microsoft account that is using the email address of a third-party service like Gmail as its username. But in this case, I would highly recommend signing into the account and changing its alias over to an outlook.com email address in order to ensure that you don't lose access to it at any point in time. Also, while you're there, be sure to set up things like two-factor authentication for additional security.
Then you will need to use the recovery options in order to find out what the email address used is. There's no way to change the address of an account when you can't log in to the account itself. That would be a major security flaw if you could.
If you change the new email, do you still need to remove the old email if there is spam? People threaten me to pay them bitcoin cause they leak my password.
Removing the old address is an optional step if you no longer require it. You don't have to do it if you don't want to. As for the threatening spam, it is most likely just spam, but I would consider changing your password (to a password that you don't use elsewhere) and ensuring two factor authentication is set up on your account either way. That can help secure your account against potential bad actors.
I have done my best here to explain the process step by step to ensure it isn't complicated to follow. This workflow is what I have found to be the fastest and most effective way to do this. If there is a particular part of the process you are struggling with, let me know and I can try and help.
Paul will I be able to keep all my games acquired from the windows store and all achievements. Also can this method help against spam emails from pirate ? Thank you again, very informative video.
Yeah, all of your achievements and purchases remain as it is still technically the same account.
This process is just changing the email address you sign in with.
You can use it to get rid of an old email address that gets a lot of spam, but I would suggest keeping the old one around for a couple of months or so to make sure you don't have anything important being sent to the old address.
Just make the new address your primary and the remove the old after you are sure.
You can also jump over to Outlook and set up a rule so that any email sent to your old address goes to a particular folder. That can help you filter out what services are still sending email to your old address whilst starting to use your new address as your main one.
ohh ok thanks for the tips@@paulomalley
@@paulomalley Will changing the email also work for signing into windows, like will it change email in my accounts page to the new one?
Yes, it will do so as it's become the primary address for the account. It may take up to 24 hours or so to fully populated across but it should do so.
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I wanted to personally thank you. I was getting unsuccessful sign in from China like 4 days a week for the last 6 month and it started really making me nervous how obsessed they were in trying to get in. Now I only use my new Alias to sign in that I am keeping to myself so when they try my old one it shows up as email not existing. It gives such a peace of mind.
That's awesome to hear that you were able to use this to resolve the issue. Glad I could help! ☺️
I used to see people have similar issues to what you were experiencing in one of my previous jobs. Which was part of why I made the video in the first place.
Cant thank you enough , had my gmail doxed ( competitive gaming rival couldn't take the loss and move on ) and kept getting people try to guess my passcode even with security measures , Changing the alias Helped a ton , Thank You!
Wow! I'm sorry to hear you experienced that. That's something pretty intense to have to go through. I'm glad my tips helped.
Something that I have done personally to avoid this is to create an alias, set it as my primary, but then go to my sign in options and remove my other aliases from the available sign in options.
The other aliases are still there on my account so they work for email etc, they just can no longer be used to sign in to the account.
I never hand out this new alias to anyone so there is no way anyone can use it to try to get into my account.
It's a little bit of a process, but it means my Microsoft Account stays secure.
Can you add an alias to gmail?
@7prudent - Unfortunately, adding an alias to a Gmail account in a similar manner to this video is not possible. I have been looking into alternative options to get a similar result, but nothing I have seen implies this is possible.
@Puggleglum - I highly advise against using a third party email address as the username to your Microsoft Account if you can at all avoid it. I have seen far too many instances of this causing issues down the road.
As for the sync attempts etc, that should have no bearing on your ability to change your Alias etc.
But you should note that there is a maximum number of times you can change this (I believe it is twice per week). If you have hit this limit already, it will error out.
And if you already have a total of 10 Aliases, you will not be able to add more as that is the maximum number allowed on an account.
Love that he throughly answers all questions. Had to subscribe. 😊
If i wanted to change the email to an existing email that is in use still and linked to important stuff will I still have access to both emails forever and nothing else changes but the primary alias?
Thank you, very helpful!
If you use this process to create a new alias, as long as you don't delete the old address you will still have the ability to use either. And any emails sent to either will end up in the same inbox. 👍
@@paulomalleyyeah ok so the existing email is already associated with another Microsoft account, I’m trying to it make that existing email linked with my second Microsoft account changes onto my main account and remove existing email from main account? Sorry if I’m being confusing
Ahhh. Then unfortunately you can't use that one in this process. There is no way to merge two separate Microsoft accounts.
And Microsoft doesn't recycle addresses either, so if the second account was closed completely at some point in the future, you still would not be able to add it to the first account.
It's been this way since back around the time when Microsoft bought Skype (maybe even earlier).
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this one. 🫠
exactly what i needed, thanks
You're welcome! :D
Brilliant video. Clear and straight to the point. Thanks
Thanks! 😁 That's exactly what I aim for.
But the code will Sent To old email
Same
Add a recovery email (if you can)
Great directions right on point!
I actually love you dude thanks for this video because I been recently hacked and I been trying to prevent it but ever since I found your video it’s been helping me ever since but all asides thanks.
So to make sure, all my emails and attachments in my inbox for my previous email address will still be accessible with my new address?
Yes. The idea with this process is that you are creating an alias for your existing account and then removing the old one.
All of the data in the account remains.
If you want to, you can also leave the old alias on the account if you want to still receive emails with it. This is great if you want to change and use the new address but still have the old one available just in case.
All emails will come to the same inbox since they are just aliases for the same account.
@@paulomalley can I still recieve e-mails to the old one (original one), but just opt out the signing in option with it? (it is associated with bank accounts etc too so I do not want it to be like "do not exist anymore")
My mail is constantly under attack that I am thinking about adding an alias (an e-mail that only one person knows).
Absolutely! 😁 That is actually exactly what I do myself. I have a total of three aliases for my account but only one can be used to sign in and it isn't the one I give out to people (so only I know it).
To do this, you just need to make the new alias your primary one and then you will be able to untick the other aliases in the sign in options.
The other aliases will continue to act as email addresses as normal provided you don't remove them from your account.
Basically all the email for all aliases comes into the one inbox. 😁👍
@@paulomalleythank you so much! 😊
Excellent video. Followed steps and worked like magic.
😊
Thankyou for this! I actually don't want to delete my initial primary email address i just want to be able to rename it (my original email is embarrassing as i created it when i was 15 and still using it til this day at 39). I folllowed the steps without deleting my primary alias and can receive emails to my original email address and the added email address too. This means i don't have to tell new people my old embarrassing email address haha
Nice work! 😁👍
Yeah, that's a great way to do it whilst still allowing you to keep getting emails to the original address.
Ahh you are a lifesaver, thanks!
Glad I could help. 😸
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Excellent video Sir. You are my hero today! Thank you! 🙏
My complete and absolute pleasure! Glad it helped you!
This is something that I used to help people with in one of my old jobs, so I figured it's easier now if I can just point to a video... 😹
@@paulomalley Absolutely, but you do it the right way. No fluff, easy to understand, cadence is perfect... A+ my friend. Looking forward to catching up on all your videos now that I've... Subscribed! ✔😎🥳
@@AxtonPark Wow! Thanks for the great feedback! 😻Much appreciated!
Thank you so much for the help lol, appreciate it
I keep getting emails about failed sign in attempts. I want to change my login name but retain the "same" email address since I use it on so many websites for logging in. If I change the alias will I have to remember the new alias or is that only for signing in? Can I still have emails sent to the old address using the old address? I basically just want to stop the login attempts I otherwise want to keep the same email and not have to keep remembering I changed it, except when logging into microsoft of course.
Yeah, this is absolutely possible to do.
I have done this personally to avoid my main address getting leaked. You would follow the steps to create an alias, set it as your primary, but then instead of deleting the old address, you just go to your sign in options and remove the other aliases from the available sign in options.
The other aliases are still there on your account so they work for email etc, they just can no longer be used to sign in to the account.
I never hand out my new primary alias to anyone so there is no way anyone can use it to try to get into my account.
It's a little bit of a process, but it means your Microsoft Account stays secure.
@@paulomalley Yes just what was I looking for. If they don't know my username since its never broadcast I won't be a target. I am getting tired of being forced to constantly change my password.,
So if i change my email will my purchases on xbox will remain?
Yes. Using the steps here will keep all account content. You can test this yourself by creating the new alias and setting it as default but not removing the original.
You would then use the new address to sign into the Xbox. Once you confirm all is as expected, you can then remove the old address.
I've had to do this before myself and DEFINITELY did not want to lose my Gamerscore and purchases.
Feel free to add me if you like. GT: paulomalley
my account email was hacked at one time and now they try to login more than 100 times a day from diferent parts of the world and that keeps blokin my sign ins, in theory can i change only the login account and keep recieving my emails on to my old email?
Yeah, absolutely.
If you create an alias and set it as the Primary one, you can then remove your actual email address from the list of options that can be used to sign into the account in you sign in options page. This is how I have my personal account set up right now actually.
Nicely done with spotting this, few people realise this is an option.
You will still receive email to the account like normal, you will just use the new email address to sign into it. Keep that address to yourself and no one should be able to make a sign in attempt again.
Also, make sure you have 2FA enabled so you can better block any attempts that do get made.
Paul will I be able to do this process, changing the email into new email? I have a Ms Office home and student 2021 (preinstalled on my laptop)
Yes, that should be fine.
Your office installation should not be affected. If you have linked it to your current address, then that's perfect as it will still be linked to your Microsoft account when you change the primary address.
At the end of the video, you say it will take some time for the e-mail address in the account to update. It did so almost immediately in my case! However, in the desktop app for Outlook, Skype, Word, ... (all Office products) I still see my old e-mail address... Will that be updated automatically later on, or do I have to do some other steps for that? I set my new Outlook-adress as primary adress without deleting the old one, as I have a Microsoft pack (not a subscription) linked to it and don't want to risk troubles.
I was more referring to the changed propagating visually to all the other services of Microsoft. It is purely a visual thing here and more mentioned just to ease people's minds if they still see the old address sometimes over the first day or so.
As for your email clients and things like that, it would really depend on the particular email client etc. Generally speaking, if the visual of the old address doesn't bother you, you can leave it as you have it now. But if you want to ensure that visually it shows the new address, the easiest way is to sign out and back in again to that client so that it syncs and pulls the most up to date information about your account.
@@paulomalley Thanks for the quick reply! I changed it just because it bothered me - a spelling error in my own name due to a mistake in the store... I did log out and back in with the new one. It worked, except for Outlook. It's the new one in the account info, but the old one in the inbox. I removed it and added it again and now it's okay! Thank you so much for the clear video. You just ended 15 years of frustrations 😂
My absolute pleasure. :D
I'm just glad I was able to help.
Will my account still be safer if I add an email that only 1 or 2 persons know and which is also used for some mobile games etc? I do not remember if I have any website accounts created with it. Still, my outlook account is constantly under attack (it is a pretty old one) that I believe it would still be safer?
Also, how can I check if there are sign-in attempts to a gmail account?
You can view sign in attempts for your Google Account here: myaccount.google.com/security
You can use the gmail account as your sign in for an MSA, but I highly suggest against it. It will be easier, faster and have less chance of issues in the future if you create a new outlook based alias to use. This also greatly decreases the chances of the account being compromised as no one else except you will know this new address.
@@paulomalleythank you so much for the reply. Do you mean I should check the "create a new account" option? Else where, I read people strongly suggesting against it, so I am really confused right now. (I mean in your video you say do not click on "create new account" at the beginning- that's where I am confused:)
About the gmail one, it only shows me the successful log-ins in the last 28 days, not the attempts. :s
@@paulomalley also since I still want to use my original e-mail adress, I don't need to remove it from the account alieses, right? I will only uncheck it from the sign-in preferences.
(As I said above, some people suggest against creating a new account, but I do not know why. Will my security settings still be the same as for the original adress, or will I need to change the settings from the scratch for the new e-mail address?)
Apologies for the confusion, do not use the "Create New Account" option from the log in page. I am saying to follow the steps in the video, but not to use your Gmail address as the new alias for your account. I am saying to create the alias using the steps shown in the video which will create a new outlook.com address that is attached to your existing account.
As for the Google sign in thing, it seems that Google only shows recent security related items on that page now. But this would include failed sign in attempts. If you ensure that you have 2FA enabled on your account (ideally using an authenticator app), you should be safe in this instance.
@@paulomalley thank you so much. I did not know it would create an account just attached to it.
About the gmail part. I use a phone number, not an app. Seriously, I have never tried using any, and I have no idea which one is good, how to use etc. :)
This is such a great video! - quick question. If I leave the original email address on the account after making the new 1 the primary, will this mean the email to log in will only be the new primary one or could the old email address still used to log in?
My account is under attack so im trying to get rid of this email as the log in but still have it available for emails to authorise email address changes to facebook, banking etc
That is the case if you leave the address attached to the account, but there is a way around this. After you create the new address, you can then go to your Sign In Preferences and toggle off the old address so that only the new address can be used to sign into your account from that point onwards. The old email address will still exist and receive emails, but will no longer be able to be used for sign in.
EDIT: And thanks for the kind words too... I appreciate it.
@paulomalley legend! Thank you
You're knowledge has relieved so much anxiety from my chest 💜
Speaking of security. What do you suggest about TH-cam channel account e-mails? I mean, do you suggest using your usual, but a secured personal mail attached to it, or, is it better to migrate the channel to another account for security?
That's more of a personal preference thing to be honest. If your main account is secured correctly with a secure password and 2FA, it should be fine.
@@paulomalley thank you! I use a pretty old e-mail adress, so it might be vulnerable.
So if l make new address as primary and delete old one, l have to sign in all accounts with new one? Like amazon, samsung tv, samsung phone, ps5, microsoft acc.my laptop, dropbox and so on and l will keep all my date infos and everything. Thank you
The accounts that you've created at other services such as Amazon and Sony etc will not change. So if you have signed up using your original Microsoft account email address, I would not recommend removing it from your account just yet.
You can still create a new address and set that as the primary one for your Microsoft account, but as long as you don't remove the old address you will still be able to receive emails with it.
If you then want to update your accounts at Amazon and Sony etc. to use your new address instead, you can do that, but I would not recommend removing the old address first in your case, as it could potentially prevent you from being able to recover those other accounts if you forget your details for them.
@paulomalley thank you so much man. God bless you 😊
Question if you have a moment would creating an alias and setting said alias as the primary allow you to keep your one drive as is I want to do this as people keep trying to log in to my account but everything is backed up to the silly one drive that quite honestly I hate and I don't want to lose my files
Oh not a problem at all. That is exactly what will happen.
Your account itself doesn't change, only the address that you use to sign in etc. This process is perfect for fixing your issue. You won't lose any of the data in your OneDrive etc.
@paulomalley a couple more questions, will the one drive automatically switch over to the new log in or will I need to log out and log back into 'continue' syncing? Also will the new login automatically have my two factor authentication enabled or does that need to be added as well as I have an app for two factor
It will automatically switch over for you and your 2FA will remain the same. Basically, at the heart of it, all you are doing is changing the username for your account. Everything else stays the same.
will i lost my microsoft office subscription if do this?
Great question! You will not lose any purchases tied to the account by doing this. You are basically just changing the username of the account in essence (no difference to changing the username on your Instagram account).
The demo account I use in the video in fact has a Microsoft 365 Family subscription linked to it.
I have a question regarding this.
If I did this with a brand new email (whether it be from Outlook or another email service) would this, in theory, cut down on all the unsuccessful sign in attempts I am getting and unsuccessful sync attempts (whatever an unsuccessful sync is)
And 2) when looking at my account, I have 2 current Alias. One is the email (which I can remove and what not). The other is a screen name that I cannot remove but I can deactivate. Is there anyway to remove the screen name Alias?
This process would theoretically cut down on the number of unsuccessful attempts as people would not be able to use that email address to sign in anymore.
When it comes to your account name that you can't remove, what you can do though, is actually go into your sign-in options, which is another option in amongst the account settings for your Microsoft account and you can toggle on or off individual usernames or email addresses that can be used for signing in.
All you should need to do is toggle off the ones that you don't want to be used for signing in. That will prevent people from being able to use that one for an unsuccessful attempt.
Just keep in mind that you won't be able to toggle off the address that is your primary Alias.
@@paulomalley I appreciate the quick reply. Very kind of you. As a quick follow up to the second question, do you know why there would be an account alias I cannot remove? I have already deactivated it so that is good but it is odd I cannot remove it.
It's possible that the Account name is an old Xbox Gamertag or Skype Username. If so, you likely can't fully remove those from your account, but you should be able to remove it from your sign in options at least.
@@paulomalley that would make a lot of sense actually. Thank you for your answers and the very quick responses!
so i did this and afterwards i havent been able to download or update anything from microsoft store from that account on any device and theres a few other smaller errors too
That shouldn't be an issue related to the change of your primary alias as it isn't changing anything about your account itself.
I would suggest restarting your computer as this can sometimes force it to refresh your Microsoft Account details when you sign in again.
This usually resolved itself within 48 hours in my experience.
If you are continuing to have issues with the Microsoft Store after this, let me know as there is some other troubleshooting you can do to fix the store.
@@paulomalley just fixed it, I shuffled the emails on my Microsoft account and I think that messed it up somehow
I have received an email from Microsoft, titled "Update your sign-in technology before September 16th, 2024 to maintain email access." If I follow the steps in the video, will I still maintain my email access and connections to Xbox account, Ubisoft account and etc. by September?
If you got that email, you are likely currently using an email or calendar app that uses a less secure authentication method to connect to your Outlook.com email account. You will need to upgrade your third-party mail and calendar app to a version which supports modern authentication methods such as the Outlook Mobile Application or change your sign in option for apps like Gmail to a modern alternative (as they support modern auth via IMAP).
The common cause for this is if you have set up your Microsoft Account address as an exchange account in the Gmail app or similar (which helps sync more items, but uses an old authentication method). This method is no longer being supported.
As for my video, changing your alias etc here doesn't really have any bearing on the email you got, nor your access to your email.
@@paulomalley got it, thank you sir
Do you suggest adding an e-mail address as a security back-up, or is phone number better and enough?
Optimally, an authentication app with a separate email address as an additional back up option is best.
@@paulomalley thank you. But, it is hard to keep all these e-mail password in mind 😅 also, I would need that other e-mail secured as well, right?
Yeah, that's why a lot of people recommend using a password manager to manage it all whilst still ensuring it is secure.
Personally, I use 1Password, but there are many other options out there also.
@@paulomalleythank you!
It was very useful for me thanks
Hey! So I have this Xbox account that I’ve been using since I was younger and am locked out of the gmail account that is the primary Alias. I recently updated my Microsoft security info and added my current email and phone number to be able to access my Microsoft account easier. I have another Microsoft account attached to that same current email as I have tried to use it to become the new alias, however it won’t let me and says “email already in use”. Probably because the same email can’t be the Alias of two Microsoft accounts?
Alternatively I created a completely new gmail and added it as an additional alias, but when I try to make it the primary, it said I must verify that I own it. When I try and verify it using the link sent in the email, I get “your email address was not verified” “This email address couldn't be verified because the wrong Microsoft account may have been entered. Try signing in with another Microsoft account.”
Is it possible to verify an email without access to the original Alias email? Or am I doing something wrong?
Hey Jeff! Thanks for commenting. You’ve definitely got a bit of a tricky situation here, but let’s walk through it step by step. Little bit of warning, this is going to be a long one...
First off, great job updating your security info with your current email and phone number-that’s an important step! Now, about the issue you’re having with setting your current email as the primary alias: you’re right, you can’t use the same email address as a primary alias on multiple Microsoft accounts. That’s likely why you’re getting the “email already in use” error. Microsoft doesn’t allow the same email to be the alias for two different accounts, which can cause the type of confusion you’re experiencing.
Now, for your primary alias, I generally recommend using an Outlook.com email instead of an external provider like Gmail. This avoids exactly the issue you’re facing-if you lose access to the external email (like your Gmail), it can make things difficult to manage. With an Outlook.com email as your primary alias, you’d have more control and clarity over which account you’re logging into, and it could save you from some future headaches.
As for the verification issue you’re encountering when trying to switch your primary alias to the new Gmail account you created: it’s possible that your browser is automatically signing you into the wrong Microsoft account when you click the verification link. I’d suggest trying this process again, but this time use an incognito or in-private browsing window. That way, the browser won’t automatically log you in to the wrong account, and you can manually log in with the correct account.
Lastly, regarding your Gmail account that you’re locked out of, it’s important to regain access to that account if possible. Without it, verifying or switching aliases can be quite difficult. If you’re unable to recover that Gmail, then setting up a new Outlook.com alias for your Xbox account and making it your primary might be your best bet.
Hopefully, this helps you get things sorted! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hey quick question, I recently started using my sisters laptop and it has her email under microsoft account, i wanted to change it to my new email alias that i had created. I wanted to transfer it to the new alias that had been created. Is it possible?
You don't need to do that. There's an ability inside Windows to remove the Microsoft account from the user profile and convert it over to a local account.
Once you've converted the account over to a local account, you can then simply connect your Microsoft account to the user profile, and then you'll be using your account to sign in instead of hers.
The best part here is that there's no changes that happen to your user profile or any other programs you have installed. Everything will stay exactly the same, except that you'll then be signing into Windows with your Microsoft account.
Here's a link to the Microsoft documentation page which details the steps on how to do this. support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-from-a-local-account-to-a-microsoft-account-395203bf-9f1b-eb24-b042-5b8dae6c1d20
Paul I need some help… I need to change me Xbox account from my now not stepdad’s email to a new one. I only know the email but not the password and I don’t know if this is still possible as I have NO two-factor authentication to use
I spent some time looking around to see if things had changed but unfortunately they have not. There is no way to move an Xbox account across to a different Microsoft account.
As a long time Xbox gamer myself, it hurts me to say this, but the only real option is to start fresh with a new Xbox account that is tied to your own Microsoft account. This unfortunately means losing your Gamerscore and any digital games that are tied to the old account. But it will prevent any issues in future.
NOTE:
And for any parents seeing this in the future, please don't use your Microsoft account for your children's Xbox accounts. Create their own account as a child account (you can link it to your parent account for parental control etc) and that way when they get older, they will have their own account already set up. No issues etc.
@@paulomalley thanks for trying
Sir i had gotten Microsoft office and student at the time of purchasing laptop. But now i forgot the linked Gmail id as i have many ID's before. What should i do now to get my ms office account back.
Unfortunately, the process in my video will not be of much use to you here as you still need access to the original account in order to use this process.
There is the form to attempt a password reset/recovery of your account, but this is an automated process and you still need to know and have access to the email address you used for it. There is no support team at Microsoft that can manually recover accounts (this is a privacy thing).
Provided you are able to regain access to your account, you would be able to use this process to create a new alias which would make it easier to remember in future as it would be an Outlook email address.
Thank you for the info.
Can I just check If someone emails the old address, it will come to that new email created?
It will, but only if you do not delete the old address entirely.
You can create a new address and set it as the primary one, and as long as the old address is still there, any emails sent to it will come to your inbox as normal.
@@paulomalley amazing, thank you!
Also can I still use all of my security key PIN stored from Microsoft windows account if I deleted the primary alias ?
All of your security options shall stay the same for things like Two Factor Authentication etc, but you may be prompted to sign in again with your account details just to reauthenticate the account. You would use your new details for that.
@@paulomalley T.y
Thanks bro, now I can change my Xbox account email from my mothers to mine, because when I got my Xbox one I didn’t have a email thanks 🎉
Glad I could help. 😸👍
Can I just check that when doing this and using a new outlook alias, it actually creates a real outlook account as well for emails etc? I am in the process of wanting to create a new outlook email entirely as my gmail is now overrun with spam. Before watching this video I created an outlook separately and then realised I had messed up as I couldn't then use it as an alias!
Thanks
Any additional aliases you add here will work as email addresses. All email sent to them arrives at your main inbox.
You can also set up rules so that any email sent to "Alias1" goes to a specific folder... It's a great way to filter out junk.
@@paulomalley Amazing, thanks mate! So it is the same as creating a new outlook account, just this way you're linking it to an xbox account at the same time?
Pretty much. All the addresses are connected to the one account.
I personally have 4 that I regularly use these days for different things... 😅
@@paulomalley Thanks man!!
Can I still use my old Alias to Microsoft office if I deleted it? Because I read online that you can still use your old primary alias/Email when using MS office.
If you have deleted it from the account, then it technically no longer exists. I would suggest heading back to your Alias settings and attempt to re add that address to your account. I am not personally sure if you can do that, but I believe you should be able to.
In your case, you would need to have the address still set up as one of your aliases, but use the new address as the primary one for the account.
That way, any email being sent to the old address will still come through to you.
I have already added a Gmail account, how can I cancel the account please? 3:03
If you have already added the alias to your account, you can follow the steps shown in the video straight the time you referenced. It shows the steps to remove an alias from your account.
Just keep in mind that you can't remove the Primary Alias of your account without first switching to a different one.
@@paulomalley I'm already added the alias to your account ..gmail account ?
i need remove it of microsoft account ? Please
Yeah, I think I understand what you are saying. I cover how to remove an alias in the video from about 03:20 onwards.
If you don't have any other alias to make your primary one first, then you will need to follow the earlier steps in the video first to set up a second alias to change your primary one into.
Hi Paul.
Firstly thank you for posting this,really clear & easy to follow 👍
My question,and I expect you’ve already answered it…
I have an old tiscali account,it’s about 15yo &
I use it only for Xbox.
My problem is that it no longer receives emails & Xbox now require a phone number to claim Microsoft reward points. My email won’t let me verify & so I can’t put in a phone number. My wife’s email is down as a contact & when I tried to verify it she got a code but to verify it,it had to send an email to my email that doesn’t receive!!!
If I follow this process will it
1) Allow me to change primary if old account isn’t verified
2) Will it need to send me an email to complete the process or will I just be able to do it as shown in your video
Sorry it’s long. This has been giving me nightmares for months as I have loads of reward points & im desperate not to lose them!
I have a feeling that you will likely need to verify the account in order to add an additional alias to your account, but once done, you would be able to use your account as normal.
If that is the case, it might be worth trying to set up a different verification option for your wife's account (such as a 2FA app or similar) so that you can use that to then verify your account and set up the new alias.
PS SORRY MATE !
So I get this message:
For security reasons,you need to verify your primary alias before you can add another alias. Alternatively, you could rename your primary alias.
So then I’m my info it shows my email address & next to it, it says rename then verify. I’ve tried the verify but that doesn’t work as it has to send me an email❌
It no longer has option to add email or remove,I think maybe because I tried to add my wife’s email as an alias but couldn’t receive the confirmation email 🤦♂️
Do you possibly know if rename the same thing as what you’ve shown in this video & if so would you know if it requires sending me confirmation to my old email address!!!
Again sorry if this is confusing & a bit long…It ain’t half stressing me out 😅
@@paulomalleythank you so much for getting back so quickly,I was just adding a PS as you sent it.
Wishful thinking that it would be so easy 😂
Thank you for your help buddy
No worries. Renaming isn't something I have run into myself, but I assume it's pretty much doing the same thing as creating an alias.
Hopefully configuring the backup security option for your wife's account will be a solution...
@@paulomalley
I’ll have to look into that. Atm I can’t get past the verification but as a confirmation email was sent to my email so it’s stuck on that every time I select verify…That was like 4 months ago😂
I’ll just have to try the rename & 🙏🏼 😂
Thanks again Paul,I’ve subscribed,you seem a to bloke.
Can you get the code to log in through text of you forget your username ?
Yeah, it just depends on what options you have configured for your account.
I generally recommend using options other than SMS as text message is the least secure method available for this.
how many time can i change alias mail it say to me This email address is already in use. Please use a different email address pls tell me
You can't add an address to a Microsoft account that is already a Microsoft account. So if you're trying to add an outlook.com account to your existing Outlook.com account, this is not possible.
That's why I specifically say at the beginning of my video to not create a new account with the address that you want to use. Because you can't merge Microsoft accounts together.
What if it wasnt me that changed the email on my Microsoft account is there a email i can use to change it back
Unfortunately not. You would need to use the account recovery options to try and regain access to your account.
If you are able to do so, you should absolutely be using a strong, unique password as well as setting up and using two factor authentication in order to protect your account against things like this.
Hello Sir,
If i change the email and delete the old email, will the onedrive picture be in the new email.
Yes. The account is the same one, you are just changing the address associated with it.
@@paulomalley so after I remove my old account, is it possible to delete my old account permanently.
Removing the old address from the account makes the address useless. It won't technically delete the old address, as you can always re add it to your account later on if you need to, but you won't get emails sent to that address after you remove it.
@paulomalley, so what about the microsoft subscription? Will it change to the new account address.
Correct. Your subscription is tied to the account. You can imagine this process as similar to changing your username on Instagram. You aren't changing the account itself, just the name you use to sign in to it.
I'm trying to switch it to a new gmail account is a possible to do this
You can switch it to a Gmail account address as the username, as long as that address is not already associated with a Microsoft Account.
I don't recommend using an email address other than a Microsoft one such as outlook.com personally, but it can be done.
Can you still use the same email address that you used as primary for Microsoft? Because someone was trying to hack my account using my primary alias or email and I'm afraid they might steal my email address and use it as their new Microsoft alias if I delete it.
You don't need to delete the old address from your list of Aliases. That way no one else can claim it in future.
But if you want to prevent anyone from being able to use the old address to sign into your account, you can visit the "Sign In Preferences" for your account and just untick the old address.
That way the address is still yours but can no longer be used to sign into the Microsoft Account itself. This is how I have my personal account set up right now actually.
@@paulomalley Ok but can they make a new MS account using my old primary alias if I deleted it? Because they know my Email login info except the pw because I've already changed it.
I alluded to it in my other reply for you, but I do believe that they would be able to create a new account with the address as you are technically no longer using it.
But you should be able to follow the steps from the video again in order to add it back to your account as an alias.
Just follow my other suggestion of not making it the primary address and untick it as an option for signing in.
Can I transfer my Hotmail address from old account as an alias to new outlook account?
No. This is not possible.
Both accounts are Microsoft Accounts already and you cannot merge them.
This is what I refer to at around 00:50 in the video.
Sorry I skipped some part of video😅@@paulomalley
I was wondering. I added my new alias to the Microsoft account, but the old name won't disappear. Do I have to wait longer? Edit: The second alias is still there.
When you say "the old name won't disappear", what exactly do you mean? Can you provide me with a little more detail (but obviously please don't share personally identifiable information if possible). Hopefully then I can help.
If you have set a new alias as your Primary one, it can take a couple of days potentially before the new Primary alias is being shown across your device. If you didn't set the new one as Primary, than the address you see when logged in to devices such as Windows will not change. This is because devices like Windows, Xbox etc will only display the Primary address.
@@paulomalley, I was discussing the old name and its relation to the old alias. Will that disappear if I get rid of the old alias? I didn't get rid of the old one to be sure, then I checked and saw my new alias appearing, but the old name to the old alias was still there. I didn't want the old name being there and wanted it to be the new name correlated with the new alias. Would that be the go-ahead to get rid of the old alias?
The name that you're seeing for your account will be the same as what it was currently for the old Alias. And that's because you haven't changed anything else about the account except for the Alias that you're used to sign into it.
If you want to change the name that is associated with your Microsoft account, you need to do that in the your info page and then edit your account name.
account.microsoft.com/profile
Bro does there is any way to recover deleted alias or to get email from a deleted areas I got my really important data stuck
You should simply be able to re add that alias to your account as it is linked to the account it was originally created on.
As for deleted emails, that's substantially harder, and honestly may not be possible.
@@paulomalley how can I do that
@@paulomalley will I be able to make Same address again
Yeah, follow the steps at the beginning of the video here on how to add the alias back to your account.
Just keep in mind that it needs to be added back to the same account it was attached to originally.
@@paulomalley bro I am trying to say can you add back the same address which is removed it was my really important data which was on deleted alias
Ayo Paul if I change my mother bored am I gonna save my games? And if I can’t is there a way
If your games were purchased through the Microsoft Store or similar, your saved files are generally linked to your account. Even Steam has the ability to upload your saved files now.
At that point, you would just need to log back into your account in order to access your games again.
I want to set another primary alias and delete the old one but it said that i cant change it. Even i add email or outlook account in it. Do you know why is it and how can i change the alias.
If you are following the instructions as shown in the video, there should be no reason for it not to work. Can you provide more context around when the error occurs and what it says specifically?
Just keep in mind that you can't add an existing Microsoft account address as an alias, so you cannot add any existing Outlook account (only creating a new one as shown in the video will work).
@@paulomalleyof course i followed your instructions. Both Outlook account and the email is not an existing Microsoft account. It say to me that "We were unable to make your primary alias. Please try again later." I've just log in and want to change alias and it say that. And i also tried to change it 2 month ago but it also say like that. Do you have any solution?
Thank you for confirming that for me, I appreciate it. Can you please also confirm one more thing for me... Is your current Primary Alias one of the following: @hotmail, @live.com, or @msn.com?
If this is the case, that would likely be the root cause of the issue. If this is the case, I do not believe you will be able to change the primary alias of the account without help from Microsoft Support as there is a process on the backend that prevents the system from converting the current Primary Alias into a regular Alias.
So by deleting the old email from the Microsoft account, it will permanently deleted or I need to sign in again to delete the old one permanently?
The account will be deleted straight away once removed from your account. The visual change can take some time to populate across the systems though.
A good thing to note though is that MSFT does not reuse aliases, so you don't need to worry about others being able to claim that address later either.
@@paulomalley I have deleted the account and already 30 days passed so its closed
But when i search for my gamertag ( xbox account) its still appear do you know when it will be deleted?
Your gamer tag will still exist unless you fully close the Microsoft account that it is connected to entirely.
Simply changing the email address (like I describe in this video) won't delete the account.
Unless you are looking to fully delete the Microsoft Account too (and everything associated with it)? If that is the case, then you can head to aka.ms/closeaccount and follow the steps there.
As part of this process there is a drop down where you can choose either 30 or 60 days as the time window where you will be able to prevent the account from being deleted should you change your mind. The default is 60 days.
@@paulomalley Yes I know , I have closed the microsoft account and everything associated with it
But after the closing of the account and 30 days passed my xbox account is still appear to me, I don't know what happened when it should be closed with the microsoft account I closed
@@Daistura I wonder if the reason you see it still is because it was yours originally. If you are comfortable with it, you can share the GT with me and I will see if I can search it on my end.
If you don't wish to share it here on TH-cam, I have my Telegram etc linked on my Bento page which can be found on my channel page.
so i cant unmerge them?
Unfortunately no. That isn't possible.
Microsoft doesn't reuse account aliases, and so there is no option to unmerge them into separate accounts.
This is also the reason why you can't merge two separate accounts into one.
@@paulomalleywhat do you mean by you cannot unmerge them into two separate accounts? I am thinking of already actively used e-mail of mine as an alias to my microsoft account for security reasons. So, will my other e-mail (which is not a microsoft/outlook account) get affected by this? Even if I use another website to log-in and check that e-mail's inbbox?
This is referring to someone having two aliases for the one Microsoft account that are both Outlook.com addresses for example. It is not possible to later on split these into two separate Microsoft accounts. That is all.
Your other email address won't get affected in any way if it isn't a Microsoft account if I am understanding you correctly. Keep in mind though, if your non Microsoft account address that you are looking to add is a work address, this can cause issues signing in if the work address is a commercial Microsoft account.
I highly recommend that you create a new outlook.com address as the new alias to avoid any potential issues down the line. I used to troubleshoot this sort of thing FAR too often...
@@paulomalley no, the one I thought about adding was a gmail account, but after reading your comments, creating a new account attached to the original address seems to be the best option. However, can I later permanently delete/erase that added alias account (by this method)?
Thanks!
I forgot my password to my new email how can I remove it to use my other Microsoft email on computer?
The password to your Microsoft Account doesn't change when following these steps. It would still be the same as it always is. There is also no real way to remove a Microsoft Account from a PC without being able to sign into the device (aside from a factory reset which wipes everything).
If you mean you have forgotten the password to the account, you can simply go through the password reset process online. Head to account.microsoft.com and select the Forgot Password option. Once you have changed the password there, you will be able to use the new password to sign into your computer (provided it is connected to the internet).
Hope this helps.
i have minecraft in my account, if i do this my minecraft account well die? or i still have minecraft?
Your Minecraft account should be fine as the Microsoft account is still the same. If you want to be 100% sure, you can just skip the part of deleting the old address.
Just create the new address and set it as your primary one. The old address will still be there and work as normal, but will just be a secondary alias for your new one.
Well where do I sign in
Head to account.microsoft.com in order to change your account details. There is a little pop up early on in the video with the address details.
Will i lose anything i had?
No,. This process does not delete any of your emails or data. The only thing it does is change your primary sign in address for the account. Everything else stays the same.
Hi, I created a new email address, but now when I delete my emails they keep coming back. How do I stop this please 😢
Apologies, but I don't quite understand what you mean by "delete emails" here.
Are you meaning that you are not able to delete an email alias from your account like I show in the video? Or do you mean that when you delete emails in an app or similar, they aren't being deleted?
If it is the second one, can you please provide more details such as the device and app you are using?
I haven’t changed the primary alias and it’s saying that I have to try again next week cause I be done it too many times any one know how to overide
There are restrictions on how many changes you can make to a Microsoft Account within a set period. This is to prevent bad actors from making too many changes to an account (usually spammers etc).
I would suggest to give it a few days and try to change the primary alias then.
@@paulomalley how many days ? 1 day ??
That really all depends on how long it's been since you last changed it.
There are limits on the number of changes that you can make to your account in a period of time...
- You can add up to 10 alias in a year, including any alias that you have added and removed before.
- A limit of new aliases that can be created in one year of 10 aliases
- For the short-term limit, you can only change the alias twice a week.
@@paulomalleyso I did it today and now I hafe to wait 1 day?
What if my account has been hacked and deleted and I cannot enter my already existing one
Unfortunately, if the account has been deleted, you are not going to be able to use this process to retrieve it.
i did this but i theres no way to log into the new account because it didnt have me create a password 👀what do i do what did i do wrong
Your password has not changed. Only your username has.
You should be able to sign in with the new address and your existing password.
Yo so if I change it to my email it won’t delete my mom’s stuff?
It won't delete the data attached to the account, but I wouldn't recommend using someone else's account.
It's always recommended to create and use your own account.
If you were to switch the email address to this account and remove the other one, then your mother would not be able to log into the account.
The data will be there, but she wouldn't have access to it.
Everytime i click on "Edit account info", it always leads me to a page with an error.
That's a tough one to diagnose then, but I would suggest starting off by trying again in a "In Private" or "Incognito" window.
This ensures that nothing else like Cookies or Extensions is messing it up.
@@paulomalley hey bro just got it. I tried vpn for some reason and didn’t seem to work. Then I tried using Edge browser instead of chrome (logged into my account), and it went through.
What if the old email address doesn't exist anymore?
If the Microsoft account email address does not exist, you can not change it's address.
If you mean that you are being asked for two factor authentication and your authentication address no longer exists, then you will need to use the account recovery options to attempt to restore access to the account. There is no easy way around that as it is a security thing.
@paulomalley Is it possible to use my account on my non existent address?
Would I be correct in assuming that your Microsoft account is not connected to an outlook.com or hotmail.com address? Because otherwise, I don't know how you would be able to have an account that doesn't have an email address that exists.
If that's the case, then technically you can still sign into the Microsoft account that is using the email address of a third-party service like Gmail as its username.
But in this case, I would highly recommend signing into the account and changing its alias over to an outlook.com email address in order to ensure that you don't lose access to it at any point in time. Also, while you're there, be sure to set up things like two-factor authentication for additional security.
but i don’t know the email that’s why im trying to change it
Then you will need to use the recovery options in order to find out what the email address used is.
There's no way to change the address of an account when you can't log in to the account itself. That would be a major security flaw if you could.
If you change the new email, do you still need to remove the old email if there is spam? People threaten me to pay them bitcoin cause they leak my password.
Removing the old address is an optional step if you no longer require it. You don't have to do it if you don't want to.
As for the threatening spam, it is most likely just spam, but I would consider changing your password (to a password that you don't use elsewhere) and ensuring two factor authentication is set up on your account either way.
That can help secure your account against potential bad actors.
ty
Lifesaver
Fast you clicked sigh what is that ?
Apologies, but I don't quite understand what you are asking here. Can you please provide me with some more detail about what you are asking?
Dont make a new outlook acc? Makes no damn sense
It does after you watch the full video. 😅 I explain the reasoning for it in the video.
This is so stupid how they have this set up
Yeah, maybe. But at least they actually allow you to do this. It's not even possible anymore with a Google Account.
I don't understand why you have to make things so complicated...
I have done my best here to explain the process step by step to ensure it isn't complicated to follow. This workflow is what I have found to be the fastest and most effective way to do this.
If there is a particular part of the process you are struggling with, let me know and I can try and help.
THANK YOUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu