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Changing & removing an Exchange Account

Anonymous
2023-01-23T09:43:30+00:00

Hi

My company was bought out and today we are switching over to the new company's exchange server. All my old email was copied over to my new company's exchange and therefore do not need to have two profiles in my Outlook. I have added my new company's account to Outlook and then I have tried to delete my old company's outlook profile but I keep getting "Unable to delete as this is the primary email account" (or words to that effect. How do I remove it and set the new exchange account to be the primary one?

Thanks

Emma Harris

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-23T10:30:32+00:00

    Dear Emma Harris;

    Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

    Based on your description, I understand that you have a concern with 'Changing & removing an Exchange Account'. When you have an Outlook profile with an account set as primary account, you cannot remove it as it is connected to the data files. There are two ways to change or remove the primary email account:

    1. Change the primary account by adding a PST file: Close Outlook and go to Control Panel > Mail > In Account Settings, remove all secondary accounts (If any) > then delete the primary account. This one can be easily identified via the checkmark in the left-hand section of the screen > With all the accounts now removed, click the Data Files tab > Tap on Add and browse to your PST/OST location > After you load it, click on Set as Default > Add the new account that you want to serve as primary by clicking the New button > Restart Outlook and go to Account Settings > Account settings > click on the Data files tab > Make sure the PST/OST file is set as the default. If it isn’t, then select it and click the Set as default button.
    2. Remove the primary account by making a new one:

    Close Outlook and any associated dialogs > Press Windows key + R and type control mlcfg32.cpl.

    Press Enter > Click on Show Profiles > Click the Add button to create a new profile > Also insert a profile name > Use auto Email Account setup to insert your email credentials and configure the new account > Go back to the initial Mail window > You can now make it the default choice by clicking on Always use this profile and selecting your new profile from the list > Don’t forget to click Apply to save your preferences > select your old profile and click Remove.

    We look forward to hearing from you, please let me know how it goes so we can provide you with more specific assistance. Thank you for your cooperation.

    Sincerely,

    De Paul | Microsoft Community Moderator

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