Deleted email

Hi Ιωάννα Σδ,

Good day. If you mean you removed an email alias from your Microsoft account, there’s a good chance the mailbox itself hasn’t been deleted, but there’s an important distinction.

If you removed the old email address/alias, try this first:

1. Sign in to your Microsoft account using one of the remaining email addresses.
2. Open Outlook and check Deleted Items and Archive.
3. Also check Settings > Mail > Forwarding and Rules, in case messages were being moved automatically.
4. If the old address was an Outlook.com/Hotmail.com alias, check whether you can add that address back to the account. Don't create a new Microsoft account with the old address, as that can make recovery more complicated.
5. If you actually deleted the entire Microsoft account, rather than just removing the address, recovery is only possible during Microsoft's account-reopening period. After that period, the mailbox and its data may be permanently deleted.

If you only changed which alias is marked primary, your old emails should normally still be in the same mailbox. Changing the primary alias doesn't normally move or delete your messages.

Regards,
Jhun

i tried to add back the email i deleted and it says This email address belongs to a reserved domain. Please enter a different email address and i cant use it to create a new email. Also i dont receive the emails thats been sending to the deleted email.

Hi Ιωάννα Σδ,

Unfortunately, what you're seeing confirms the situation. If the deleted address was an @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @msn.com address, Microsoft treats a removed alias as permanently deleted. Microsoft specifically says that once such an alias is removed, it can't be associated with any Microsoft account again. This is the reason why you are getting the message: “This email address belongs to a reserved domain.” And emails being sent to that old address won't be delivered to your new primary address. The old address no longer functions as a mailbox or forwarding address.

But before giving up, try to check your emails that were already in the mailbox, and it may still be there. If you only removed the alias and didn't, delete the Microsoft account, there's a possibility that your mailbox may still contain your emails. Because aliases normally share the same mailbox, and removing the alias isn't the same thing as deleting the entire mailbox.

The only problem is your new incoming emails sent to that deleted/old address. Those generally can't be recovered or redirected after the Microsoft-domain alias has been removed. If your email has domains like outlook,com, live.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com there might be other recovery options.

Regards,
Jhun