How to change new email address to primary email address

Hi Phyllis Woods,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

I understand you’ve already added a new email address as an alias, but you still can’t make it the primary address or remove the old one, even after following the instructions.

I also noticed the Q&A Assist answer. Those Exchange Admin Center steps are intended for organization-managed Microsoft 365 (work/school) environments, so for an Outlook.com (home) account, the correct place to change the primary address is your Microsoft account alias settings.

Below are the official steps for Outlook.com accounts, plus the key checks that commonly block the change:

1. Open the Microsoft account alias management page in a browser: https://account.live.com/names/manage
2. Under “Account aliases,” confirm your new email address is listed. If it isn’t, add it as an alias first (the Microsoft Support article explains how to add an alias and the limitations, such as not being able to use a work or school email as an alias).
3. Set the new address as primary by selecting “Make primary” next to it.
4. After the new alias becomes the primary, select “Remove” next to the old alias. If the old address is currently the primary alias, it can’t be removed until another alias is set as primary.

Reference: Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com - Microsoft Support

Since you mentioned you have already tried the instructions, could you clarify which exact step is failing (for example, “Make primary” is missing, grayed out, or you see a specific message)? If possible, please also share a screenshot of what you see, but make sure it does not include any personal information (full email addresses, phone numbers, or security details).

I hope this helps you get the new alias set as primary and remove the old address successfully.

To change your new email address to be the primary email address and remove the old one, you need to follow these steps in the Exchange Admin Center (EAC):

1. Navigate to Mail flow > Email address policies in the EAC.
2. Select the email address policy you want to modify and click Edit.
3. On the Email Address Policy page, click the Email address format tab.
4. In the Email address format section, click Add and select your new email address format.
5. Select Make this format the reply email address.
6. Save your changes to the policy.
7. After creating the policy, you will need to apply it to the recipients in your organization.

If you are unable to remove the old primary email address directly, you may need to add a second email address for the user and set it as primary before you can remove the old one.

Make sure to follow these steps carefully, and if you encounter any issues, check the settings or permissions in your admin account.