How to merge or delete Microsoft accounts

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

Thankyou Yea

Yes you are right the options seem to have changed recently, I will update the post

If you login to your Microsoft account, click on "Your info", under "Account info" there is at the bottom of that section "Close Account". This takes you to this link below and opens a case with Microsoft Support.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/account-billing/how-to-close-your-microsoft-account-c1b2d13f-4de6-6e1b-4a31-d9d668849979

Answer 4

How do we get our purchases back from a deleted account? Or do we lose those forever...