How to merge or delete Microsoft accounts

Anonymous
2024-01-06T10:36:36+00:00

I have five computers and I went over them all to decide which ones to toss out. I was surprised to see I have three MS accounts. and it looks like I cannot merge them into one? I do not share any of the computers with anyone else and do not need separate accounts. The accounts are (I'm changing the name): Mary Doe, Mary, and Mary A Doe. I have no need to maintain more than one account or pin. What is the best way I can somehow end up with just one account without losing files, etc.? Some are Win 10 and some are Win 11.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login

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  1. Simon Allison 156 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-01-06T10:43:05+00:00

    Hello! I understand that you want to merge or delete your Microsoft accounts. Unfortunately, it is not possible to merge Microsoft accounts. However, you can delete the accounts that you no longer need. Before you delete an account, make sure to back up any important files or data associated with that account.

    To delete a Microsoft account, please follow these steps:

    1. Go to the Microsoft account website and sign in with the account you want to delete.
    2. Click on "Your Info" .
    3. Under "Account Info" click on "Close Account"
    4. Follow the on-screen instructions to verify your identity and permanently delete your account.

    Please note that deleting your Microsoft account will also delete any associated data, such as emails, files, and settings. Therefore, it is important to back up any important data before deleting the account.

    167 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Simon Allison 156 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-01-06T11:24:26+00:00

    I would first decide on which account you need to keep, one linked to email?, or the most used one? or one of your choosing? Then the other two, backup files to an external drive or other drive or download all files from Onedrive etc, backup emails, change email addresses, have a way forward, a plan first, then do it, I know I have been there, and why I still have some of the accounts, because the windows license is tied to one account, I still need to sort that out and also its my Windows Insider Founder account!

    So in summary:

    1. make a plan of what you want to do.
    2. set the main account on all PC's, add account to all PC's, then make it primary
    3. backup files on all accounts
    4. set accounts to delete as per last answer (set it, forget it)
    5. have peace
    47 people found this answer helpful.
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7 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-04-07T16:30:46+00:00

    I wana delete my account

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-06T11:14:07+00:00

    Thank you, Simon. I should not have marked your reply as the answer - yet. I tried your suggestion and found that as far as MS Windows is concerned, I have three primary accounts, all on different computers, and MS won't let me delete primary accounts. In fact, I see only one account on one computer, two on another, one on still another, so I cannot see them all at one screen. So it looks like I will have to create a new account and somehow mark it as the primary account and then move all the files to the new primary account on the primary computer before getting rid of the older computers.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-21T04:45:57+00:00

    So i tried this steps in irder and was lead to a spot where this is no close account option and after searching everywhere across the account settings it seems to be that there is no option unless you call because these steps dont lead you there

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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