delete account I didn't set up that Microsoft doesn't recognize (Outlook web, Outlook for iPhone)

Question

When I try to log into Outlook, a weird outlook email address pops up that it's mine. It won't let me sign into my real outlook account, so I can't access email, contacts, calendar. The weird address is ******@outlook.com. I can't recover this account because Microsoft says it doesn't exist, but it shows up as the email folder when I log into Outlook.

Answer 1

@Brenda Barnes said

The weird address is ...

Does it look like outlook_[long series of letters and numbers] @ outlook.com (without the spaces)?

If so, this is a placeholder email that Microsoft created when you used a non-Microsoft email address (like Gmail) as the "Account ID" for you new Microsoft/Outlook account.

It won't let me sign into my real outlook account, so I can't access email, contacts, calendar.

Were you ever able to sign-in to your "real" outlook account? One that had your real user name and ended in outlook.com ?

If you created your Microsoft Account using a non-Microsoft email address (like Gmail) as the Account ID, then that is the address you should use when trying to Sign-In to your Microsoft account.

Microsoft says it doesn't exist, but it shows up as the email folder when I log into Outlook.

I doesn't exist. It's just a placeholder "alias" for your account. But you should not normally see it.

Using a Private/Incognito browser session can you open and sign-into this page? https://account.live.com/names/manage Do you see a non-Microsoft email address (like Gmail) as the Account ID? Are there any other aliases listed on that page?

Answer 2

Have a look at:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/support/known-issues/outlook-com-email-account-appears-as-outlook-long-series-of-letters-and-numbers-outlook-com-in-outlo