How to delete an Outlook (and Microsoft) account in a few easy steps

Before you decide to go ahead and permanently delete your Outlook.com email account, there are things to consider like how this will affect your Microsoft account. In short, deleting your Outlook account, requires you to also delete your Microsoft account, but we will explain this in detail later.

If you need answers to your questions like, ‘How do I delete my Outlook Account?’ Keep reading.

In this step-by-step guide we fill you in on everything you need to know about deleting you Outlook mail account, what closing your Outlook account means for your Microsoft account, the steps to take before permanently closing your Outlook/Microsoft account, and finally, step-by-step instructions to officially close the account.

Table of Contents:

• Deleting Outlook means deleting Microsoft

• Before deleting your Outlook account

• How to cancel your Outlook Account permanently

• How to reactivate Microsoft and Outlook account

• Alternative to canceling your Outlook Account

• Why choose Tuta Mail?

Deleting Outlook means deleting Microsoft

Remember, Outlook Mail is owned by Microsoft. And if you use any other Microsoft services like Office 365, Skype, OneDrive or Xbox Live– all these accounts are linked to this Outlook email account. In order to completely delete your Outlook.com account, you have to delete your entire Microsoft account.

Unfortunately, you cannot delete Outlook mail and keep your Microsoft account. Deleting one, means deleting the other.

If you still want to delete your Outlook account (and your Microsoft account) your access to all the linked Microsoft services you use will be closed and you will not be able to use any Microsoft service like MSN, Skype, Xbox Live, Windows or Office 365. Unfortunately, closing your Outlook account means a lot more than just canceling an email account.

Note: If you use a Microsoft account to log into your PC or laptop, deleting your Microsoft account will make logging into your computer extremely complicated and we do not recommend deleting your Microsoft or Outlook account.

Below we cover each step of what to do before you decide to permanently delete your Outlook and Microsoft account.

Once you’ve followed the steps on before deleting your Outlook account, you can go ahead and close your Outlook and Microsoft (at the same time) in a few simple clicks.

Steps to take before deleting your Outlook account

1. Back up all your data

Before you rush into closing your Outlook email for good. We’d recommend backing up your data – this includes all your emails, contacts, and files. The easiest way to do this, would be using Outlook’s export feature which will allow you to download all your data.

But how do I back up my Outlook data? Follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook and go to General settings
2. Click Privacy and Data
3. Click Export Mailbox

Once you’ve clicked on Export Mailbox, the process of requesting a copy of your mailbox will start. Exporting your data can take up to four days to complete- this depends on how much data there is. Outlook will send you a notification email with a link to download all your mailbox data when it’s ready.

2. Cancel your Microsoft Subscriptions

You will need to manually cancel any subscriptions linked to your Outlook account. To cancel any active subscriptions follow these steps below:

1. Log into your Microsoft account

2. Go to Services & Subscriptions

Under services and subscriptions you will see all your active Microsoft services and subscriptions linked to your Outlook Mail account. This could be Skype, Microsoft 365 or OneDrive.

3. Review your active subscriptions and cancel them.

3. Inform your email contacts

To avoid receiving important emails to this address that you will delete, it’s best to let your contacts know that you will be closing your Outlook account.

Your Outlook mail account will still receive emails for up to 60 days after you request to close it. Since you will have requested to close it, it’s best to set up an automated reply to any emails you receive during this period. In your automated response you should inform your email contacts of your new primary email address and let them know that soon this email address will no longer be active.

4. Update any services linked with this email address

There’s a high chance you would have used your Outlook address when creating accounts for services online. If this email address is being used for other accounts like Instagram, Facebook or Netflix for example, you will need to go an update those account’s email addresses to a new email address (ideally the one you will use for future communications). If you don’t update these linked email addresses, you will have troubles accessing these different services and may get locked out of them.

How to cancel your Outlook / Microsoft Account permanently:

Now that you’ve made a back up of all your data, canceled your active subscriptions and changed any linked email addresses, you can go ahead and cancel your Outlook/Microsoft account by following the steps below:

1. Open the close your account page

2. Sign in to your account you wish to delete

3. Read through the list of instructions to take before closing the account

4. Click Next

5. Review and check each box to acknowledge that you know what closing the account entails

6. Select the reason for closing the account

7. Lastly, click Mark Account for Closure

How to reactivate Microsoft account and Outlook email:

After closing your Microsoft/Outlook account, you will have 60 days to reactivate your account. If you decide that you’ve made a terrible mistake by closing your Microsoft account, simply log back into the account from any device before the 60 days is over. After the 60 day period, you account will officially be deleted and irretrievable.

1. Log in to your Outlook account

2. Enter your closed account details that you want to re-open

3. Click Reopen Account

Now that you’ve signed into the account you previously closed, it will have been reactivated and it won’t be closed in 60 days.

An alternative to canceling your Microsoft Account

Okay, so now that you know that deleting your Outlook account means deleting your whole Microsoft account too, it’s very likely that you’ve decided not to close your Outlook account. Just because you can’t permanently delete your Outlook account, it doesn’t mean that you need to actively use it or keep it as your primary email account. We have a solution for you – choose a secure Outlook alternative and make Tuta Mail your primary email account – best of all it is completely free and even without ads or tracking.

A simpler solution to deleting the Outlook.com account would be to inform all your email contacts that you will be changing your primary email address, and to ask them to update your contact information with your new email address.

We would also then recommend, turning on automatic forwarding in your Outlook account. This means that any email that is sent to your Outlook email account would be automatically forwarded to your new free email account.

Why choose Tuta Mail?

So, your Outlook (formerly Hotmail) account is full of ads, gets tons of spam emails, and it just seems to be a bit old and outdated? Additionally, the Microsoft Outlook security breach is just another reason to ditch this big tech email provider. You might be thinking of creating a new, free account with another popular provider like Gmail. If so, click here to read about how Gmail and Outlook compare in 2024.

If you’re tired of having your emails scanned, and being spammed with targeted ads , then do yourself a favor and don’t sign up for another big tech provider like Yahoo or Gmail – there are many [private email providers] ({blogPrivateEmailLink}) like Tuta Mail. Choosing one of these free providers makes sure that you get email at its best: private, secure, and you get zero ads and zero tracking! Click here to get a free Tuta Mail account now.

Tuta is a privacy-focused email and calendar service based in Germany. It is compliant with the European GDPR, but additionally goes beyond this European benchmark. With Tuta Mail all your emails are end-to-end encrypted by default!

Tuta makes security and privacy easy for the user with its user-friendly apps, available on all platforms. Tuta’s desktops clients are free and available for Linux, MacOS and Windows. Tuta also has free mobile apps for Android and iOS – so that you have your emails always with you, even on the go!

Make a change for the better! Sign up for a free Tuta Mail account.