verification notices are being sent to an old email address

Question

verification notices are being sent to an old email address

roger grist 0

When I get a verification notice from Microsoft it always has an old email address listed.

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

This usually means the old email is still configured on the account as either:

the primary alias, or
a security verification method.

What to check:

Go to Your info and review the email addresses/aliases on the account. Verification codes sent by email can only go to your primary alias or to another email added as a way to verify sign-in.
Go to Security > Manage how you sign in.
Check whether the old email is listed there as a sign-in or verification method.
If the old address is no longer valid, add a current email as a new way to verify sign-in, then remove or replace the old one if allowed.
If prompted during sign-in and the listed email/phone is no longer accessible, select I don't have any of these and follow the prompts to replace the security info.

Important:

If all previous security info is replaced, the account can be restricted for 30 days.
Support agents cannot send verification codes or directly change account details.
If the old email is only used for notifications in Azure DevOps, email changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate, but for Microsoft account verification the key settings are the alias and security info.

If the old address is shown but not recognized, also confirm the sign-in email/domain is correct and not a different Outlook/Hotmail/Live country-domain variation.

References:

Answer 2

Hello,

Do you have any other Security Contact methods available to Verify Your Identity? And do you still have access to the old email address?

If you tried to sign in and Microsoft sends a verification code to an old email address you still have access to, you can visit the Security Settings page of your Microsoft account here to replace it.

https://account.live.com/proofs/Manage

Sign in to an Old recovery email address to view the Verification code.
Enter the code to verify your identity and sign in.

However, if you don't have access to the old recovery email address, you will need to replace your security information. That is, select 'I don't have any of these' on the screen and follow the prompts to replace it.

verify (1)

Note:

If you remove all of your previous security Information and replace it with something new, your account will be put into a restricted state for 30 days.