shifting over from a Hotmail account to an Outlook.com account


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Here's what I want to do: take all the e-mails/folders and contacts from my Hotmail account, and move them over to my Outlook.com account (not forward them, but to literally move them over, as if I originally had them sent to the @outlook.com address).

Is that even possible? If so, how?

EDIT: Is it the "Rename your Microsoft account" option? If so, this seems incredibly easy.

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If you rename your MS account, your current hotmail address and messages will be placed in the folder named your hotmail address ... i.e.: 'yourname@hotmail.com' folder automatically... your new renamed account will be ready in your inbox.

If your friends or family send you to your hotmail address, the messages will be placed in your hotmail folder which I mentioned above.

If you create alias, it will create a folder such as 'name@outlook.com' so the future messages will be sent to this folder ... if you do not want any folder for alias, then you can use inbox instead.

Your contacts will be moved over to your new MS account if you have renamed an account automatically. And if you created alias, your contacts and data will not go anywhere.

Please check for support for any important information about renaming an account if you have Xbox or Windows Phone. Otherwise you end up getting any errors...

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Thanks, but I'm honestly still not sure how to go about doing this so that I get the exact outcome I want.

I'm also not sure what an "alias" is, technically, when compared to "renaming", despite the awesome post above.

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Thanks, but I'm honestly still not sure how to go about doing this so that I get the exact outcome I want.

I'm also not sure what an "alias" is, technically, when compared to "renaming", despite the awesome post above.

Here's an easy guide. Basically create the Outlook.com alias first, then rename your account to the newly created Outlook.com alias.

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/08/03/upgrade-from-hotmail-to-outlook-com.aspx

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Here's an easy guide. Basically create the Outlook.com alias first, then rename your account to the newly created Outlook.com alias.

http://blogs.office....utlook-com.aspx

So this is how I understand it (being that I'm a bit slow at present):

Step 1: Sign in to www.outlook.com with oldaddress@hotmail.com (this probably isn't even necessary, as I've already upgraded to an outlook.com layout/GUI)

Step 2: Rename oldaddress@hotmail.com to newaddress@outlook.com -> oldaddress@hotmail.com becomes an alias, with its own folder in newaddress@outlook.com

Right?

Anyway, I get the following two options:

[] Create a new address

[] Use a different address

Does it make a difference in the end which option I choose? I want to pick the 2nd option, since I already own the account I want to "switch" to.

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Seems like I'm screwed, since I created a new account already with the desired account name (months ago), and it takes 365 days for it to be wiped from the system, even though it belongs to me!

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Seems like I'm screwed, since I created a new account already with the desired account name (months ago), and it takes 365 days for it to be wiped from the system, even though it belongs to me!

Nah, if it's not working you can always just set both up in Windows Live Mail that comes with the Windows Live Essentials package, not Windows Mail that comes with Windows.

And just select it all and copy it to the new account.

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So this is how I understand it (being that I'm a bit slow at present):

Step 1: Sign in to www.outlook.com with oldaddress@hotmail.com (this probably isn't even necessary, as I've already upgraded to an outlook.com layout/GUI)

Step 2: Rename oldaddress@hotmail.com to newaddress@outlook.com -> oldaddress@hotmail.com becomes an alias, with its own folder in newaddress@outlook.com

Right?

Your old address will be an alias with a folder named "oldaddress@hotmail.com". Which it will be placed in the folder list on the left pane. Your new address will be in the inbox folder if you renamed an account from hotmail.com address to outlook.com address.

Anyway, I get the following two options:

[] Create a new address

[] Use a different address

Does it make a difference in the end which option I choose? I want to pick the 2nd option, since I already own the account I want to "switch" to.

If you renamed an account, you will use your new address at login instead of old one. If you want to use old address for login, then do not rename the account. Get an alias address instead.

Hope this helps and you understand this clearly.

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Your old address will be an alias with a folder named "oldaddress@hotmail.com". Which it will be placed in the folder list on the left pane. Your new address will be in the inbox folder if you renamed an account from hotmail.com address to outlook.com address.

If you renamed an account, you will use your new address at login instead of old one. If you want to use old address for login, then do not rename the account. Get an alias address instead.

Hope this helps and you understand this clearly.

Yup I understand it now. Unfortunately, I can't do it due to already having created the account I want to switch to months ago.

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Yup I understand it now. Unfortunately, I can't do it due to already having created the account I want to switch to months ago.

Oh you want an old address back? You might want to contact Outlook support about it and see they will be able to set it up for you. Explain it to them and see what they can do about it.

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Nah, if it's not working you can always just set both up in Windows Live Mail that comes with the Windows Live Essentials package, not Windows Mail that comes with Windows.

And just select it all and copy it to the new account.

Trying it now. How can I "copy" it? There seems to be no backup or export function.

EDIT: nevermind, found it.

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Ok, I still can't figure it out.

I have both accounts (@hotmail.com and @outlook.com) open in Windows Live Mail, but I can't seem to figure out how to put all the e-mails/folders from the Hotmail account into the Outlook.com account. I tried exporting, then importing, and also dragging and dropping.

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Here's what I want to do: take all the e-mails/folders and contacts from my Hotmail account, and move them over to my Outlook.com account (not forward them, but to literally move them over, as if I originally had them sent to the @outlook.com address).

Is that even possible? If so, how?

EDIT: Is it the "Rename your Microsoft account" option? If so, this seems incredibly easy.

Note, if you have 25 gb of storage on SkyDrive - that doesn't transfer to your Outlook account. And as far as I can see, it's not possible at this time to rename your account (I once googled it and that's pretty much what came up on all Microsoft's sites). And as far as I can tell, there's no way of transferring your contacts, folders, emails or calendar entries from Hotmail to Outlook - but I sure hope I'm wrong!

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Note, if you have 25 gb of storage on SkyDrive - that doesn't transfer to your Outlook account. And as far as I can see, it's not possible at this time to rename your account (I once googled it and that's pretty much what came up on all Microsoft's sites). And as far as I can tell, there's no way of transferring your contacts, folders, emails or calendar entries from Hotmail to Outlook - but I sure hope I'm wrong!

I have skydrive and I have renamed my account and it works. Everything have automatically moved over well.

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I have skydrive and I have renamed my account and it works. Everything have automatically moved over well.

So they've enabled renaming your account? Shucks, I'm left out in the cold - seeing as I probably can't then rename my hotmail account, as I have registered for an Outlook account, both bearing the same name.

Did your storage capacity transfer as well? No hickups?

...guess I'll just stick to my Hotmail account in the unforeseeable future seeing as it gives me much less spam than Gmail

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So they've enabled renaming your account? Shucks, I'm left out in the cold - seeing as I probably can't then rename my hotmail account, as I have registered for an Outlook account, both bearing the same name.

Did your storage capacity transfer as well? No hickups?

...guess I'll just stick to my Hotmail account in the unforeseeable future seeing as it gives me much less spam than Gmail

When they announced about their Outlook service, I went to hotmail and upgraded to Outlook layout and then I noticed "rename" option in the settings, I went ahead and renamed it, everything moved over to outlook and my hotmail emails moved to it's own folder. Skydrive went well, too. I am using my new address as login on skydrive... it's fine.

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Nah, if it's not working you can always just set both up in Windows Live Mail that comes with the Windows Live Essentials package, not Windows Mail that comes with Windows.

And just select it all and copy it to the new account.

Can you clarify how this is done? I tried; can't figure it out (I'm using Windows Live Mail).

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