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Ron_Wolpa's avatar
Ron_Wolpa
Copper Contributor
May 14, 2026

cannot recover a hotmail email account

Perhaps this old account was blocked as I tried to access it connected to a VPN.  I haven't succeeded to recover it as I can't answer the follwing questions below : 

1- For these questions you might want to ask for help from family, friends, or business contacts to confirm their email addresses and tell you the subject lines of emails you've sent them.  >>>>>>  I DO NOT USE THE ACCOUNT I WANT TO RECOVER FREQUENTLY SO HOW CAN I ASK HELP OF PEOPLE ?? ?? i DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHEN IT WAS THE LAST TIME I SENT AN EMAIL FROM THIS ACCOUNT !???

2- Email addresses of contacts you've recently sent emails to (one per text box)   HOW THE HELL SHOULD I REMEMBER ??

3- Exact subject lines of your recently sent emails (one per text box)  WHAT DOES IT MEAN ??  IF I CANNOT REMEMBER WHEN IT WAS THE LAST TIME I SENT OR RECEIVED A MESSAGE , HOW SHOULD I REMEMBER THE EXACT LINES OR SUBJECT OF THE MESSAGES ?   

The answer sent to another email I informed the system was  :  

Your account recovery request for xxxx*email address removed for privacy reasons :   We recently received a request to recover your Microsoft account xxxx*email address removed for privacy reasons. Unfortunately, we have determined that the information you provided was not sufficient for us to validate your account ownership. ....

How the hell I will recover the account if I cannot answer those stupid questions ??
I have the password , this should be proof enough I own the bloody account.

What to do now ?  

1 Reply

  • SoraDev's avatar
    SoraDev
    Copper Contributor

    You’re running into a very common Microsoft recovery problem: the system is trying to verify recent activity on the account, but inactive accounts are the hardest to recover because there’s very little recent data to match.

    Having the password unfortunately is not always enough for Microsoft if:

    • The account was flagged for unusual login activity (VPNs can trigger this),
    • The account has been inactive for a long time,
    • Or recovery/security info is outdated.

    First, try Microsoft recovery again without using a VPN and from a device/location you previously used for that account.

    If you still cannot recover the account, you can try the EdbMails application. We use the EdbMails OST to PST Converter in our organization for email backup and recovery, and it works well. If you still have an old OST or PST file from that account on your computer, you can use the “OST to PST Converter & Recovery” operation to recover and export old emails.

    Also keep in mind: if the account was inactive for years, Microsoft may have permanently disabled or deleted it under their inactivity policies. In that case, recovery may no longer be possible even with the correct password.