help with hotmail ?

[Roofgardener]

Hiya everyone,

I have a problem, and wonder if anyone can help, or has had a similar problem ?

Here it is....

I used to use a Hotmail account... <username>@Hotmail.co.uk.

I only EVER used the web interface to receive my emails etc. Over the years, I built up a large body of contacts, as well as a large number of emails organised into folders.

Again.. I must stress...this was ALL done through the web interface, NOT a mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever.

One day - around 3 or 4 weeks ago, I browsed to the Hotmail webmail address, only to be diverted to the new Microsoft Account login screen.

I tried entering my Hotmail credentials (username - which is my email address - and password).

I got the message "That password is incorrect. Make sure you're using the password for your Microsoft account".

This doesn't surprise me; Microsoft accounts are restricted to "outlook.com" and "Hotmail.com," addresses. There is no option to create a Microsoft account as <username>@hotmail.co.uk.

I finally created a SEPERATE UNRELATED Microsoft Account, purely to access the "Microsoft Community" for help. They where entirely and totally unable to help. The only responses I got where from people who had completely and utterly missed the point, and where making suggestions about checking for aliases (how, when I can't log in to access the configuration screens ? ), or about mobile devices.

So, do we have any UK-based Hotmail users here, and if so, how did YOU survive the migration to Outlook.com ?

 

[paulhutch]

Hiya everyone,

I have a problem, and wonder if anyone can help, or has had a similar problem ?

Here it is....

I used to use a Hotmail account... <username>@Hotmail.co.uk.

I only EVER used the web interface to receive my emails etc. Over the years, I built up a large body of contacts, as well as a large number of emails organised into folders.

Again.. I must stress...this was ALL done through the web interface, NOT a mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever.

One day - around 3 or 4 weeks ago, I browsed to the Hotmail webmail address, only to be diverted to the new Microsoft Account login screen.

I tried entering my Hotmail credentials (username - which is my email address - and password).

I got the message "That password is incorrect. Make sure you're using the password for your Microsoft account".

This doesn't surprise me; Microsoft accounts are restricted to "outlook.com" and "Hotmail.com," addresses. There is no option to create a Microsoft account as <username>@hotmail.co.uk.

<snip>

Not a Hotmail.co.uk user but from what I know you can not sign up for new Hotmail.com or .co.uk addresses however existing ones are supposed to still work. In fact since the error message did not say user name is incorrect I believe this means it is still considered active in the database.

There should be a password reset link when the error message comes up. Try resetting your password which may require you to recieve a text message or email at a different address with a one time code to get you logged on to where you can change your password.

I had to help my sister with this problem a few days ago for her Hotmail.com address. From what we could figure out Microsoft had marked her password as needing an update so even though she was entering it correctly they forced her to go through the reset process and review all the recovery and security settings.

 

[Babbylonian]

I'm not sure about your problem but I think it's worth nothing that Microsoft accounts are not limited to @outlook.com and @hotmail.com addresses. While I have an address of <username>@outlook.com (purely as backup), I log into that email account with <username>@gmail.com.

 

[alfaniner]

Try using "live.com". I think they automatically ported over at some point.

 

[commandlinegamer]

hotmail.co.uk, hotmail.com, live.com, outlook.com all direct to

https://login.live.com

and, IIRC have done so for quite some time, longer than 3-4 weeks.

It is possible the OPs' account has been compromised and the password changed?

 

[Wudang]

I still use my hotmail.com (though I'm in the UK) account daily as I just have too many subscriptions etc built up over the years. I did notice intermittent problems when I changed my password to include a non-alphanumeric character. If yours does think about the US and UK character sets and see if there could be an issue. Totally unsupported theory based on a case count of 1 but FWIW.

 

[Roofgardener]

Not a Hotmail.co.uk user but from what I know you can not sign up for new Hotmail.com or .co.uk addresses however existing ones are supposed to still work. In fact since the error message did not say user name is incorrect I believe this means it is still considered active in the database.

There should be a password reset link when the error message comes up. Try resetting your password which may require you to recieve a text message or email at a different address with a one time code to get you logged on to where you can change your password.

I had to help my sister with this problem a few days ago for her Hotmail.com address. From what we could figure out Microsoft had marked her password as needing an update so even though she was entering it correctly they forced her to go through the reset process and review all the recovery and security settings.

We tried the password reset option via the alternative email. They sent us a code. It didn't work. (invalid code).

We know the password hasn't changed, because it still works on the mobile phone (which is still sucessfully sending and receiving on the old hotmail.co.uk account.) It's just the web interface that is denying access.