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There could be a number of reasons why you might want to close your Outlook.com email account right now. May be your account has been compromised, or may be, you have decided to switch to services and products offered by Apple or Google, or may be, you just want to close an old account that you no longer use.
While a Microsoft account (Hotmail.com, Live.com, Outlook.com, or MSN.com account) is must and should if you're using one or more services offered by the software giant and you shouldn't think of closing your Outlook.com email account if you have been using one or more services by Microsoft, terminating your Outlook.com email account isn't as tricky as it sounds.
Before closing your account, be sure to backup all important emails and other attachments that you have received over the years as once your account is closed, you can't recover your emails and contacts. If you have a Gmail account, you can export Outlook.com contacts to Gmail.
Please note that if your Outlook.com account is compromised and you don't have access to your account, please don't follow the instructions in this guide as you need to sign-in to your account in order to close the same. However, if you have forgotten the password of your account, you can follow the instructions mentioned in our how to recover Outlook.com password guide to reset the password.
Closing your Microsoft or Outlook.com email account
Step 1: Visit this page in your web browser, sign-in to your Microsoft account that you would like to close.
Step 2: On the left-pane of Microsoft Account Overview page, click on Security & password to move to the account verification page.
Step 3: Here, you need to verify that the account that you're trying to close or access sensitive info. To do so, simply select your contact number or alternative email address from the drop-down menu that you had provided while creating your account and then enter the code when you receive it.
Step 4: Under Close your account section, click on Close my account link to proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Finally, click select a reason why you're closing your Microsoft or Outlook.com account, and then click Mark account for closure. That's it!
Note that Microsoft doesn't close your account immediately. Instead, Microsoft marks the account for closure and closes the account after a 60-day waiting period so that you can easily get access to your account just in case you change your mind. But if you change your mind and want to access the account again within 60-days of applying for account closure, you need to provide security information that you had provided while creating the account.
