Email Deleted

Question

Hi all,

I have an old email that is linked to some of my gaming accounts, however I cannot log back into them or even change the email in some cases as they require me to get a 2 factor code from the old email. I am not sure if the email is permanently deleted or not, is there anyone that knows what I can do or if theres any suggestions, thanks.

Answer 1

When was the last time you signed into this "old" email?

If you haven't used this account during the last two years, it is unfortunately closed permanently and cannot be recovered. Microsoft's account activity policy is explained here:  https://support.microsoft.com/topic/microsoft-account-activity-policy-7c0a9fa7-0982-b7c6-fd72-df852b63699f

In that case, you would have to work with each gaming service to see if they have a recovery process for this scenario.

For example, if you registered a Microsoft account or a Google account with a third party address, and you lost access to that third party email address, Microsoft and Google both have a process to allow you to update your security contact information, but you have to wait x days to allow the rightful owner to notice the change and cancel it, in case the change is made by non-owner. So perhaps these gaming services will have a process like that too.