Primary alias change appeared to fail, but Microsoft processed it and triggered the weekly limit

Question

I recently tried to change the primary alias on my personal Microsoft account.

I already had my new Gmail address added as an alias. I clicked “Make primary” next to the new Gmail address, but the website appeared not to do anything. The old Gmail address still appeared to be primary, so I assumed the change had failed.

I then tried other actions on the alias page, which also appeared not to do anything. Eventually, I clicked “Make primary” next to my old Gmail address because I thought that was still the current primary alias.

I then discovered that the original change to the new Gmail address had actually been processed in the background. My old Gmail address had temporarily become secondary, and my later click changed it back to primary.

As a result, Microsoft has now placed a cooldown on changing my primary alias again, meaning I have to wait until next week before I can make my new Gmail address primary.

My questions are:

1. Is this a known issue where the Microsoft account alias page can fail to visually update even though the primary-alias change has actually been processed?
2. Is there any way to determine whether a “Make primary” request has successfully processed before clicking anything else?
3. Why does a change count toward the primary-alias change limit if the website does not show that the change was successful?
4. Is there anything that can be done to reset the cooldown when the additional change was caused by the website appearing not to respond?

I understand that Microsoft limits how frequently a primary alias can be changed. My concern is specifically that the website appeared not to process my first request, while the backend apparently did process it.

I am trying to avoid making the same mistake again when the cooldown expires.

Answer 1

@Kingtallzilla said

Is this a known issue where the Microsoft account alias page can fail to visually update even though the primary-alias change has actually been processed?

Yes. I've seen this behavior on multiple occasions over the last month when making changes to my personal outlook.com accounts.

Is there any way to determine whether a “Make primary” request has successfully processed before clicking anything else?

For me, refreshing the page, or opening a new Private/Incognito browser session to https://account.live.com/names/manage will show the updated state.

Why does a change count toward the primary-alias change limit if the website does not show that the change was successful

Because the change was made on the backend. You just can't see it.

Is there anything that can be done to reset the cooldown when the additional change was caused by the website appearing not to respond?

No. Just FYI.

Limits on Primary Alias Change 

Microsoft accounts limit primary alias changes to twice per week and 10 times per year to prevent security abuse. If you recently added a new alias, you may also face a mandatory 48-hour to 7-day cooldown before you can set it as your primary sign-in

Limits on Alias Creation 

Microsoft limits personal account alias creation to prevent abuse. You can only create up to 2 new aliases every 7 days. Additionally, you are restricted to a rolling annual maximum of 10 new aliases and a total of 10 active aliases on your account at any given time. 

Answer 2

Sorry to hear you're having trouble.

Although this issue is not by design by any stretch of the word it does sometimes happen on any website. When you make a change to your account you should always try opening the same page in a different tab or window or close the browser out completely before opening the page again.

This is because sometimes information is saved in the browser's cache itself and even if you were to hit Refresh on your browser it still may not load up properly. Apologies that you have to wait a bit before you can make the change again.