changed my primary email address and removed old one. tried to add it back but it says address is already linked to another account

Gamma 20 Reputation points
2026-09-30T14:41:09.64+00:00

I now use a outlook.com domain as my microsoft alias. That is my primary address. I previously use a live.com domain. Since changing, I cannot receive emails from other online accounts and senders that used my live.com domain as my email address. For example, say I signed in to strava with my live.com account before, and now when I attempt to login a recovery code is sent to the live.com email address. Under my new outlook.com domain I do not see that recovery code in the inbox. Furthermore, when I try add my live.com email back to my Microsoft account as a secondary email, I receive an error message that states the email is already linked to a Microsoft account. I cannot log back in with the live.com account. I understand informing senders of my email address update to outlook.com, but what about other online profiles that were signed up for with the old and now deleted domain (live.com domain).

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
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Diane Poremsky MVP 17,621 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2026-09-30T17:12:22.27+00:00

When you remove an address it is deleted from your account and cannot be added back. Sorry. It cannot reclaimed or reused.

The message that it the address is linked to another account is because it is on the deleted alias list and can't be reused.

When you removed the address, you should have seen this message:

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