Outlook alias removed but still shows “already taken” after 72 hours

Question

Alias: <Mod mask PII> aaa @outlook.com

Removed Tuesday 3/10 from account: <Mod mask PII> bbb @outlook.com

Trying to add to account: <Mod mask PII> ccc @yahoo.com

After 72+ hours (it's 3/14) it still returns either: “This email address is already taken” or “There’s a temporary problem with the service.”

Alias no longer appears on the original account.

Requesting this to be escalated to the Outlook.com identity team for manual release.

Answer 1

Hello,

When an outlook.com or hotmail.com alias is removed/deleted, it is gone permanently. Microsoft doesn't reuse its own email address, so it cannot be added to created as alias again. This is why it would tell you the email address already exists. This is to prevent others from reusing your email address and receiveing emails meant for you.

Microsoft explains it here: https://support.microsoft.com/office/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com-459b1989-356d-40fa-a689-8f285b13f1f2

Under the section "Remove an email address", it says: "Are you sure? If you remove an alias that's an email address from a Microsoft domain (like @hotmail.com, @live.com, @outlook.com, or @msn.com), you're permanently deleting the alias and it can't be associated with any Microsoft account again."