Did you make a new Outlook.com account, only to then discover aliases?

[Reacon]

This worked like a charm for me, and now I have reconAoutlookOcom attached to my 8 year old hotmail live account and all its data! Be sure to read each step thoroughly before executing - as you can screw this up.

Source - Discovered by sss_ms on answers.microsoft.com

I've found a solution.

Please be sure to create testing account to verify below steps before applying to your real account.

Assumptions: you have both account@hotmail and account@outlook email accounts, and account@outlook was NOT previously made as alias and deleted

Description: to free the @outlook email account, you can rename ("Update email address") it to another email address (e.g. @gmail), and then close the updated email account. But it seems to be a bug in MS email service, not sure when it will be fixed.

Step 1. <gmail> apply for accountXXX@gmail in gmail (or other email supplier)

Step 2. <outlook> Login account@outlook, click "your name" at top-right of the browser, and choose "account settings", and then click "Update email address", and change your email account to accountXXX@gmail

Step 3. <gmail> in gmail, open the new verification email, click the url, and login your outlook using accountXXX@gmail account

Step 4. <outlook> It will prompt that you are ready to use your new account. DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW, AND DO NOT LOGIN AGAIN. You will find your name at top-right of the browser, click your name and choose "Account settings", and "close account" immediately.

NOTE: if you login again after verifying accountXXX@gmail, the old account@outlook will be made as alias of accountXXX@gmail, and previous work will be wasted.

Step 5. <outlook> login account@hotmail, click the gear icon and choose "more mail settings". And then, click "Create a outlook alias" (keep @hotmail as login account) or "Rename your email address" (use @outlook as login account afterwards, and @hotmail will be made alias), you will find that account@outlook can be used.

Step 6. <gmail> terminate accountXXX@gmail account in gmail, and do not waste google resources...

Please to noted, when I used testing accounts to verify previous steps, I failed in the following 2 cases

1. account@outlook was previously deleted as alias, due to previous solution to wait 30 days to free alias...

2. In Step 4, logged in again, and account@outlook was made as alias after login... I'm not sure if making the @outlook the login address and start all over again from step 1 would help or not. [NOTE: to change @outlook from alias to login address, it has to be deleted from the alias list, and "rename" accountXXX@gmail to the deleted @outlook name.]

[Lee G. Veteran]

It worked like a charm for me too. Thanks for posting this Reacon. (Y)

[Lirodon]

For me, it was actually the other way around, since I had doubts about how the account re-naming function worked; I was actually impressed by how quickly everything automatically updated itself to reflect the new email address

[Julius Caro]

I didnt even know alias existed :(

but on the other hand, I guess I could live with a new outlook.com account, since my hotmail one is like ... 14 years old with a lot of "legacy" contacts from high school, and endless spam

[Reacon]

I didnt even know alias existed :(

but on the other hand, I guess I could live with a new outlook.com account, since my hotmail one is like ... 14 years old with a lot of "legacy" contacts from high school, and endless spam

The best part is, you can put all the old email to one folder, and eventually discontinue it! My old Hotmail account had things like Xbox Live and Skydrive attached to it, so this fix was really a godsend.

[Principiante]

This worked like a charm for me, and now I have reconAoutlookOcom attached to my 8 year old hotmail live account and all its data! Be sure to read each step thoroughly before executing - as you can screw this up.

I was actually trying to find information for this, but I didn't wanted to open a thread about it when information about it was already probably around...

So you're saying that if I follow your examples, I can attach my old hotmail account to the new outlook.com address?

Because I did exactly that: I rushed to create an outlook.com account, and I haven't read about aliases...

So at the moment, I have two accounts (one hotmail.com, and one outlook.com), that I have to keep using individually.

So if I follow your steps, I can "attach" my old hotmail.com account to my new outlook.com account, transferring all the messages and contacts to the new outlook.com?

And what happens if people keep sending e-mails to my hotmail.com account? Are they forwarded to my new@outlook.com account?

ps: what do you mean by creating testing account?

[grayscale]

Mine was the other way around. I can't seem to rename my account since @outlook.com is not included on the options despite having the new UI (I figured out later that it's because I logged in at Live instead of Outlook) so I made an alias. Later, I tried removing the alias then renaming my account with that alias and it worked! :)

[Principiante]

Dammmm.......

To much contradictory and confusing information :(

Are there any easy guidelines for people like me who just rushed to create a new outlook.com e-mail? What do I do now, to merge the old and new accounts under outlook.com?

[Principiante]

Help???

[efjay]

Thanks to the OP, just did this and it worked. @Principiante what are you not clear on?

[+John Teacake MVC]

Luckily I had myfirstnamemysecondname@hotmail.co.uk so everything just went straight across :-D

[CG-88]

I did this but it didnt bother me..

My hotmail folders were only used really to contact my mum so I never really use them, I saw outlook coming out to decide to get a new email address with my new soon to be married name that I can use full time :D

Good guide though, really helpful to people who need it

[Growled Member]

Good guide. :)

I made a new outlook.com account and somehow hotmail automatically linked to it. I didn't have to do a thing.

[Principiante]

Thanks to the OP, just did this and it worked. @Principiante what are you not clear on?

tell me one thing - if I go through every single step in there (and using an "old" hotmail account which I want to have replaced by a new outlook.com account), every e-mail that is sent to my "old" hotmail account will always be forwarded to my outlook.com account, right?

And what is meant by closing hotmail account? Will it permanently cancel each and every e-mail sent to my hotmail account instead of redirecting them to the new outlook account?

Because at the moment, all I can do is to add another account, to access them under the same session, but not sharing contacts or folders

:/

[cooky560 Veteran]

I just left my address as @hotmail.com, easier.

[Xerxes]

Not really :p I discovered the alias first and made one...then discovered your can migrate your old hotmail account to outlook.com, so I did! (it's in settings, one step and your done) everything went across smoothly :happy: and my old account was automatically made an alias of the new one. Wish you could delete alias though, got a second @outlook.com one and a @live.com.au (I made ages ago when alias were first added) one too now :p oh well, sure can find some use for them.

[Principiante]

tell me one thing - if I go through every single step in there (and using an "old" hotmail account which I want to have replaced by a new outlook.com account), every e-mail that is sent to my "old" hotmail account will always be forwarded to my outlook.com account, right?

And what is meant by closing hotmail account? Will it permanently cancel each and every e-mail sent to my hotmail account instead of redirecting them to the new outlook account?

Because at the moment, all I can do is to add another account, to access them under the same session, but not sharing contacts or folders

:/

help?

[Rappy Veteran]

I just got the addresses I wanted and now I use them by default :)