Account Aliased with Incorrect Mailbox

Question

Account Aliased with Incorrect Mailbox

Chris Donovan 0

My Microsoft account sign-in is my Gmail address and it remains my primary alias. I created an Outlook.com alias, then removed it. Outlook Web now opens a mailbox identified as outlook_################@outlook.com. This address does not appear under "Manage how you sign in to Microsoft" and is not listed as an alias, so I cannot remove it myself.

I would like to know how to remove or disassociate this Outlook.com mailbox identity from my Microsoft account.

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Answer 1

Brian Tillman 26,680 Independent Advisor

I appreciate your full description. However, I'm afraid this is a situation I've never encountered and I'm going to step aside and see if anyone else in the forum can help you. Sorry.

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Answer 2

Brian Tillman 26,680 Independent Advisor

Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

This is normal. When you create a Microsoft account using a non-Microsoft address, the process automatically creates an @outlook.com address in the format you describe so there is some reference for the mailbox, even though you can't receive mail in that mailbox when it's sent to the Gmail address. Only Gmail will receive the messages. When you add an alias ending in @outlook.com to that Microsoft address and then make that new address the primary alias (without removing the @gmail.com alias), that new alias will become the identifier for the mailbox and it will then become addressable using that new alias. You should be able to remove the original alias at that point. Did you make the new alias the primary alias?

This is described in the article https://support.microsoft.com/office/8c95d913-d96b-4065-9171-e1fa44b03ff5 in the section entitled "Outlook.com email account appears as 'outlook_[long series of letters and numbers]@outlook.com' in Outlook for Windows."

Chris Donovan 0 Reputation points

2026-07-26T17:07:44.62+00:00

Hi Brian, thanks for helping. Much appreciated.

it was a bit weird tbh. I have had a MS account for years (20 years odd). It’s always (I think) been tied to my Gmail address. There was never an issue viewing my Gmail account through Outlook web. Today, I attempted to log in and I was prompted to create an email address ending in either hotmail or outlook. There must have been an alias before but it seems that it has somehow been forgotten/removed. I made the email address (which was nothing like the one I wound up with) and then I was unable to see either the new address or my Gmail in Outlook web. I never made the new email the primary alias, that remained the Gmail account. I removed the new email address from the list of aliases altogether in the hope that this would jog things back into place, so to speak. That didn’t work. Gmail remains my primary. I logged out everywhere and closed the browser to try to ensure that there is no old log in which is retaining something of the erroneous alias. That hasn’t worked either. Even when I log in using incognito mode on chrome, I am shown the weird inbox. I’m am also regularly told at login that MS can’t find an account of my name but below that is a button to log in to my account with the Gmail address clearly visible.

one other thing, I am using Gmail on the Outlook desktop app fine. I don’t know if that is relevant but I thought it might help

I don’t know how helpful any of this information is to you Brian but I thought I’d attempt to answer your question and give as much info as I can. Do please let me know any more questions you might have.

Thanks again!

Chris