msn email account cannot renew

Question

apparently my email account was deleted in february. I need to renew it but cannot find how.

Answer 1

Hi B BLAICHER

From your post, it sounds like the account may have been closed or deleted, but the next step depends on how it was deleted.

I can see there is already a Q&A Assist reply under your post. To avoid repeating it, could you please confirm whether you already tried the official sign-in/reopen steps it mentioned, and if so, what happened?

To narrow this down, could you please let me know what exactly happened? For example:

• You closed the account yourself in February
• The account had not been signed in for a long time before February
• When you try to sign in now, Microsoft says the account does not exist/ cannot be found?

Based on Microsoft’s current policy:

• If you closed the Microsoft account yourself, there is usually a 30-day or 60-day grace period during which you can reopen it simply by signing in and completing the security check. You can see: Reopen your Microsoft account
• If that period has already passed, the account can no longer be reopened.
• If the account has not been signed in for more than two years, Microsoft says it may have been deleted and can no longer be reopened. Please see Microsoft account activity policy

Please feel free to let me know how it goes. Thank you so much for your time and understanding.

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Answer 2

If the MSN email account was deleted, it cannot be renewed or restored.

There are two common deletion scenarios in the provided information:

1. Account deleted due to inactivity
   • If the Microsoft account (including the MSN/Outlook/Hotmail mailbox) has not been signed into for more than two years, it may have been automatically deleted.
   • Once deleted for inactivity, the account and its email address cannot be reopened or restored, even by Microsoft support.
2. Alias or address removed from a Microsoft account
   • If the MSN address was removed as an alias from a Microsoft account, that alias is permanently deleted.
   • An alias from a Microsoft domain such as @msn.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @outlook.com cannot be associated with any Microsoft account again after removal.

If the account was closed manually and the 30- or 60-day grace period has already passed, it is also permanently deleted and cannot be reopened.

The only available option in these cases is to use or create a different Microsoft email address; the deleted MSN address itself cannot be renewed or recovered.

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References:

• Reopen your Microsoft account
• I can't sign in to my Microsoft account
• MSN email issues - Microsoft Q&A
• Deleted hotmail email address from account - can I get it back? - Microsoft Q&A
• Attempting to access old email - Microsoft Q&A