Updating my cell phone number.

Question

How the heck do I update my telephone number? I've been jumping through hoops and all sorts of 6 digit numbers just to get this far? My new number is -removed for privacy-.

Answer 1

Hi David Murray,  

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

I understand how frustrating it is to keep running into 6‑digit code prompts when you simply want to update your phone number. For a personal Microsoft account (Outlook.com/Hotmail), the phone number is managed in your Microsoft account profile and security settings, not inside Outlook itself.

You can add a new number and then remove the old one using the official steps here: Add or change your phone number - Microsoft Support and Change the email address or phone number for your Microsoft account - Microsoft Support

The steps below outline how to complete the phone number update:

1. Go to your Microsoft account security page and sign in: https://account.microsoft.com/security
2. Open Manage how I sign in (Security info), then choose Add a new way to sign in or verify and add your new phone number.
3. Verify the new number with the code you receive, then remove the old number if it is no longer needed. (The general add/remove flow is covered here.) 

Those 6‑digit codes are part of the required identity verification before changes to security info can be saved. More detail on why codes are requested and how verification works is here: Microsoft account security info & verification codes - Microsoft Support

Just to set expectations, this is a public, user to user forum, so contributors here cannot change account security details on your behalf. Updates must be completed through the Microsoft account pages above.

To help narrow this down, at which point are you getting blocked: signing in, receiving the code, code being rejected, or the page only offering the old number with no other option? 

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