Account Recovery

Question

Hi there,

This morning I received an email saying that my account was needing to be recovered after some suspicious sign-on activity.

I entered my password correctly but it then wanted to send a code to my recovery email address. One of those recovery addresses was a university email address whose account has since closed. The other was a former partner's (of six years whom I lived with) and thus I no longer have access to (and quite frankly would be scared to ask him).

So I filled out the recovery form, giving every answer possible but still it was not enough! I even had to trawl back through emails to find my old skype address, put in old passwords and my xbox gamer tag (the serial live ID I cannot give because I no longer have the device). I have moved around (including across countries 4 times) and have had this same email address since I was a child. I cannot remember the exact post-code I was in when I set up the account (I am 17 houses down and counting). But I answered every other question. The frustrating part is I could use my two-factor authentication but it won't let me.

I am at a loss here; my whole life is on my onedrive. I am a PhD student, my thesis, data and resources are on there, including all of my personal photos and videos. I can't do any of my usual work until I have access to it.

Please can anyone help me? I am who I say I am and I'm so frustrated that I cannot access my own onedrive.

Thank you,

Ellie

***moved from Microsoft 365 and Office / OneDrive / For home / Other***

Answer 1

Dear Ellie. Mann

Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community

Based on your description, I understand that you are trying to recover your Microsoft account, please point out if my understanding is wrong.

Generally users are able to recover their Microsoft account by themselves in three ways which are Reset Password, Account Security Code and Account Recovery Form.

The most important part of Microsoft account recovery is that Microsoft needs to determine if the person submitting the account recovery request is actually the owner of the account. To do this, a secure verification email address and secure mobile phone reserved in the Microsoft account are required, and by receiving this verification information, it is possible to prove that the person who is attempting the recovery step is the previous owner of this account. If none of this information is accessible, it is also possible to do so by submitting an account recovery form ( https://account.live.com/acsr). The form requires the person who needs to recover the account to fill in information about which Microsoft products you have used, as well as some other usage history. The account recovery form also proves that you are the owner of the account. Please note that since anyone can try to recover the Microsoft account through the account recovery form without the security verification information and password. In order to increase the level of authentication and to protect the user's data, the verification mechanism of the account recovery form may be stricter. In addition, if there is a 25-digit security recovery code (https://account.live.com/proofs/manage/additional) that has been generated in the Microsoft account web page, this code can be used directly as a credential to verify the account owner. To prevent hackers from holding the code and trying to recover the account, the account recovery process using the security recovery code In order to prevent hackers from holding the code and trying to recover the account, the recovery process using the security recovery code needs to wait for 30 days to ensure that the original account owner has enough time to respond if a hacker does hold the code.

If none of the above methods can restore the account. Trying to contact Microsoft's online support team is the last option. As with the above, even with live customer support, the person performing the account recovery needs to be able to come up with enough information to prove that he himself is the owner of the account. (Private information such as identity serial numbers, Microsoft doesn't collect this type of content from its customers, so there's no way it can be used as information that can be used for account recovery.) Valid information includes order numbers for Microsoft products purchased with the Microsoft account, bank invoices, etc.

Users can find online support by clicking on this link and following the instructions below

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/home/contact

1. First enter your question into the search（input“MSA”）, then click "Sign in to contact support" at the bottom of the page.
2. Currently logged in to another valid personal Micorsoft account .
3. Under "Microsoft 365 and Office", select "manage account security".
4. Under Categories, select Manage Account Security, and then click Confirm.
5. Click Chat with Support Agent in Web Browser.

PS: As a community user I can't help you recover your Microsoft account directly, I can only provide options to recover your account and direct you to Microsoft's online support interface.

I wish you all the best

Carmid.L-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist