Forum Discussion
Outlook login - temporary problem with recovery service
Hi,
Sorry if this is the wrong place in advance, I have had my hotmail.com account probably since circa 1998 and it has everything on there.
It seems someone has tried to login so many times that suspicious activity has been detected, I have tried many ways to recover it.
I have 2FA Switched on but when I try password recovery to get it to text my mobile it states that service is unavailable :-(
It will email to my 1st alternate email account however it then asks to use the second one to which was an old work account that I have no access to :-(
Any ideas? do I just wait until it unblocks my phone number?
I have the 25 digit recovery key but I get the below error. All help welcome as I really need my account back!
Yeah, this usually happens due to a temporary issue on Microsoft’s side, especially with the account recovery service. It’s not always a problem with your account. You can try again after some time, or switch networks/browser and see if that helps. Clearing cache or using incognito mode sometimes fixes it too. If it keeps happening, you might need to wait a bit or try the recovery process later since these services can go down temporarily.
3 Replies
thanks all, I'm back in - like the login alias idea :-)
Yeah, this usually happens due to a temporary issue on Microsoft’s side, especially with the account recovery service. It’s not always a problem with your account. You can try again after some time, or switch networks/browser and see if that helps. Clearing cache or using incognito mode sometimes fixes it too. If it keeps happening, you might need to wait a bit or try the recovery process later since these services can go down temporarily.
I have the 25 digit recovery key but I get the below error.
Try from a Private/Incognito browser session, different browser, different network (e.g. use your phone cell data not Wi-Fi).
It seems someone has tried to login so many times that suspicious activity has been detected,
When (if?) you do finally get into your account you can setup a Login Only Alias and disable Sign-In for your current email address. Then, if all the Bad Guys have is your email alias, they get "This username has been turned-off for sign in" at the very first step of the logon process and can not continue.
For detailed instructions on how to setup a Login Only Alias and disable Sign-In for your current email address:
See the answer by "Hornblower409 on Feb 27, 2026" in
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5789093/i-get-a-few-2fa-notifications-from-canada-daily-us
