This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(32, 21%, 13%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EDS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
so I'm having a hard time signing in to my gmail (it has a microsoft account attached to it) because it claims my password is wrong but I have a piece of paper that has my password on it right here and occasionally it'll say I need to "Verify my identity" which in that case I give all correct answers and it still can't figure out I own that email.
Are you trying to sign on to https://mail.google.com/ or to https://outlook.live.com/ ?
outlook, I'm trying to use a google address with outlook
You can add an alias to your microsoft account then change that alias to primary.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com-459b1989-356d-40fa-a689-8f285b13f1f2
--please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
it told me "This email is already taken"
That is a possibility. I do happen to have my gmail address as an alias for my microsoft account. What might have happened in your case is someone else mistakenly used your own gmail as an alias to their microsoft account. I had this same sort of thing happen with an apple ID and unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it.
Another thought is unless you might have aliased your gmail address to a different microsoft account?
now I am thinking that I changed my password at some point and didn't update the paper copy
In that case I'd work through this one to recover.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/when-you-can-t-sign-in-to-your-microsoft-account-475c9b5c-8c25-49f1-9c2d-c64b7072e735