How can I remove one of my email addresses that I never use?

Question

I already have a Microsoft account. I wanted to create an Outlook email address, which I did. Long story short, I accidently created a second email address, as I thought the first hadn't worked. I want to remove both email address from your Microsoft account, as I don't need them. I don't know their passwords and Microsoft doesn't allow account recovery for some reason. I can't find any option to delete them, without deleting my Microsoft account. I just want to delete both unused email addresses, while keeping my original Microsoft account intact.

Answer 1

Hi Chi Valentine

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand that you want to remove two unused Outlook email addresses while keeping your original Microsoft account, but you are unable to do so because you do not have the passwords and cannot find a delete option without closing the entire account.

Please make sure you already tried the Q&A Assist steps. In addition, here are some steps that you could try:

1, Sign in to the Microsoft account that you want to keep using.

2, Go to https://account.live.com/names/manage and review whether the unused Outlook addresses appear under Account aliases. If they appear as aliases, remove them one by one. If one is marked as primary, set a different alias as primary before removing it.

3, If the unused Outlook addresses do not appear as aliases, they are separate Microsoft accounts. For separate accounts that you cannot sign in to, they cannot be deleted or modified without successful authentication.

4, Check whether any recovery options are still accessible, such as alternate email addresses or phone numbers previously added to those accounts. If there are no recovery options, please fill out recovery from (ACSR):

• Go to: https://account.live.com/acsr
• Enter your original email and an alternate email where Microsoft can contact you.
• Provide as many accurate details as possible, such as old passwords, frequent contacts/subject lines and submit from a familiar device/location.
• Wait 24–72 hours for a response. You may refine and resubmit up to twice per day.   
• Please see this official guide to help you fill out the form more accurately: Help with the Microsoft account recovery form - Microsoft Support

If you are facing any issue in recovery progress, you need to contact Microsoft Support directly for further assistance. It may offer live chat and, depending on your subscription/region, an option to request a callback:

• Go to Contact - Microsoft Support
• Type a brief description of your issue in the search box.    
• Click "Get Help", then scroll to the bottom and select "Contact Support”.
• Choose the appropriate Products & Services/ Category.
• Look for and select "Chat with a support agent in your web browser" (during business hours) or a similar callback option (if available). Explain your situation clearly.

Please kindly note that this is a public user-to-user forum, I do not have the ability, tools to unblock, recover accounts or bypass security. Only Microsoft’s official recovery process can restore access.

Please feel free to let me know how it goes. I truly appreciate your time and understanding.

Answer 2

To remove unused Outlook email addresses while keeping the existing Microsoft account, the addresses must be aliases on that account. Aliases can be managed and removed from the Microsoft account settings; separate Microsoft accounts, however, cannot be deleted without deleting those accounts themselves.

If the two Outlook addresses were added as aliases to the existing Microsoft account:

1. Go to Manage how you sign in to Microsoft: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=842796
2. Sign in with the Microsoft account that is to be kept (the original one).
3. Under Account aliases, locate the Outlook email addresses that are not needed.
4. Select Remove next to each alias that should be deleted.
   • If one of them is the primary alias, first choose another alias as primary by selecting Make primary, then remove the unwanted one.

Important behavior when removing aliases:

• If an alias from a Microsoft domain is removed (for example, @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com), that alias is permanently deleted and cannot be associated with any Microsoft account again.
• Removing a non‑Microsoft domain alias (for example, @gmail.com) usually makes it immediately available to be added as an alias on another Microsoft account.

If the two Outlook addresses are actually separate Microsoft accounts (each with its own sign‑in and password) and not aliases on the original account, they cannot be merged into or removed from the existing account. In that case, they can only be left unused or each account can be closed individually, which is separate from managing aliases on the main account.

To add or adjust aliases on the main account (if needed):

1. Sign in to the Edit account info page: https://account.live.com/names/manage
2. Choose Add email or Add phone number, or select Remove next to an existing alias that is no longer needed.

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References:

• Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com
• Change the email address or phone number for your Microsoft account
• How to add an email address or phone number to your Microsoft account
• Deleted hotmail email address from account - can I get it back? - Microsoft Q&A
• How to add an existing outlook.com account to my existing microsoft account? - Microsoft Q&A
• MSN email issues - Microsoft Q&A