How Do I Get My Old Hotmail Back?

It’s been several years since Hotmail was replaced by Outlook. Even so, many users still request access to their Hotmail for several reasons, mainly because they had set it as their recovery email for other accounts. Read on and we’ll show you how to regain access to your old Hotmail account.

Microsoft Account Recovery

Hotmail and Outlook are both services developed by Microsoft, the latter being the newer and more supported version. Existing Hotmail accounts were already migrated to Outlook and you only need to recover your account to gain access to your old email and contacts. To recover your account, do these steps:

Visit the account recovery page.

Type in the email address you wish to recover.
Enter an active email address to be used when Microsoft contacts you.
Confirm the contact email address.
Take down the security code for reference.
Complete the succeeding procedures to finish the recovery process.

Once you are done, you will receive communication from Microsoft within 24 hours.

There are some things to note with this method:

Accounts inactive for a year will be deactivated but can still be recovered.
Accounts inactive for five years and more will be automatically deleted by Microsoft.
This method is only usable if you have enabled two-step verification.

Linking to a New Email Client

Another method you can use is to link your old Hotmail account to a new email client. Take note that this only works for non-Microsoft clients. You will also need your Outlook account. Let’s take a look at the steps:

Open and sign in to Outlook.
Go to Outlook Settings.
Select Sync email.
Select Other email accounts.
Input your email account details – your account name and password.
Link your accounts.
Sign in to your non-Microsoft client.
Go to Settings.
Find your Account Settings (name and location may vary depending on which email client you’ll use) and select the Import option.
Find the option that lets you check your mail from other accounts and add your email account to access your data.

Create a New Account

This method doesn’t apply to everyone, but many users have sworn to this process to recover their Hotmail accounts. The way in question is creating an Outlook account using your email details. Here’s what to do:

Open your internet browser.
Open an incognito tab.
Go to this website.
Select Create a free account.
Follow the on-screen prompts and input your information. Don’t forget to use your email address!

The result for this method is mixed – some insist that it works while the same didn’t apply to the rest. If the first two methods don’t work, this can be tried as a last resort.