Wife not receiving responses from microsoft with account recovery process

Question

Wife not receiving responses from microsoft with account recovery process

Julian Hegedus 0

My wife had her hotmail account blocked due to suspicious activity whilst she was travelling overseas. She attempted to have a code sent to the backup email, which is my email account, but this process did not work, I did not receive anything. She then went through the account recovery process. It automatically declined her and asked her to submit another form. She has since done this 4-5 more times but is no longer receiving a response from Microsoft about the success or failure of her recovery attempt. Everything is tied to her email account and she really needs it back. How do we get a response from microsoft? All the details she is providing are accurate because her phone has frozen the last emails she could access a week ago. So she has been able to enter exactly word for word the email titles and contact details of those she has sent emails to. There's no reason the recovery should not work. But the recover process didn't work at first, and now she's not getting a response at all and it's been days (it says responses should be received within 24 hours).

Julian Hegedus 0 Reputation points

2026-10-19T03:10:49.0766667+00:00

AI bot replied:

Because no recovery-form result arrived within the documented 24-hour period, use Microsoft’s Sign-in Helper and then Contact Support to report a recovery-message delivery failure rather than continuing repetitive verification-code requests. [---]

This answer does not solve the issue. Some of the instructions provided have already been tried to no avail, the rest do not work as those options don't exist or they send you back around in circles to other unhelpful self-help or auto-generated responses. How do we get a response from microsoft on the recover process? The email address is correct, it's sending codes to it, just not the answer to the form.

Answer recommended by moderator

Julian Hegedus 0

Hi, we finally fixed it, for anyone else in this situation where the code is not being sent, ChatGPT advised me to check my settings in my email account :

Check blocked senders

On a computer, or using a browser on his phone

Open Outlook.com .
Sign in to your husband's email account.
Click the Settings gear icon ⚙️ in the top-right corner.
Select Mail, then Junk email.
Find the section called Blocked senders and domains.

For some very strange unknown reason, the microsoft codes were being blocked from being received by me. This is not something I ever set up and I've had microsoft send me codes as little as 6 months ago so I have no idea why they are now on the blocked list. But I have now unblocked it and am now receiving the codes and my wife was finally able to get into her email account.

Kai-H 31,290 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-20T09:01:36.5766667+00:00

Glad to hear that the issue has been resolved.

Have a nice day!

1 additional answer

Your answer

Julian Hegedus 0 Reputation points

2026-10-19T03:10:49.0766667+00:00

AI bot replied:

Because no recovery-form result arrived within the documented 24-hour period, use Microsoft’s Sign-in Helper and then Contact Support to report a recovery-message delivery failure rather than continuing repetitive verification-code requests. [---]

This answer does not solve the issue. Some of the instructions provided have already been tried to no avail, the rest do not work as those options don't exist or they send you back around in circles to other unhelpful self-help or auto-generated responses. How do we get a response from microsoft on the recover process? The email address is correct, it's sending codes to it, just not the answer to the form.
Kai-H 31,290 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-20T09:01:36.5766667+00:00

Glad to hear that the issue has been resolved.

Have a nice day!

Answer 1

Hi, Julian Hegedus

I'm really sorry you're both dealing with this. It's stressful when everything is tied to one inbox.

Since her account was blocked for suspicious activity, it may just be locked. In that case she might not need the form at all. Go to account.microsoft.com and try signing in with her Hotmail address. If it says the account is locked, it'll ask for a phone number to send a code to. This can be any mobile that gets texts, even yours. It doesn't have to be a number already on her account. Enter the code and she should be able to set a new password.

If that screen doesn't come up, it's recommended to go straight to a live chat agent. Go to Microsoft Support and sign in with your own Microsoft account. Type "account recovery" and click "Get Help", then click "Ask our Support Assistant". Then request support by a live agent. Start with something like "This is not a request to recover the account. The recovery form results aren't being delivered, even though the verification codes arrive fine." If they just send you the form link again, wait about an hour and try again. You'll usually get a different agent.

Please be advised that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas.

Hope this gets her back in soon.

Julian Hegedus 0 Reputation points

2026-10-19T23:20:50.53+00:00

Hi, thank you for the response but this doesn't work either. The account is not locked, the message is that it detected unusual activity and it she needs to verify her identity, which then takes her to the screen where she needs to request a code to her back up email which is my email address, and the code still does not arrive. If she tries to use a different verification form it goes back to the account recovery form questions. Your other suggestion of getting support from a live agent doesn't work either. No matter how many times we have tried, using your wording, it keeps giving the account recovery form link again or says "I understand you would like to seek other assisted support options" and gives us a 'contract support' button, and then we go around in circles of choosing the product, going to my email and generic self-help info pops up. We are in Australia, does this make a difference? Is there a way to get the system to release the code to my email address? I feel like this is a microsoft problem, not an us problem, and there's no reason Microsoft shouldn't be releasing the code to my email address when it is her back up email address.