Recovering an Old Xbox Live Account with a deactivated email

Incredible Olk · Feb 11, 2025

I am attempting to recover my old Xbox Live account that has been dormant for 9 years.

I no longer have access to the email used for the account as it has been deactivated by yahoo and it is not possible to recover that account. While I do know the associated email for the account, I cannot remember the password I used for the Xbox account. Because the email account has been deactivated, I cannot use it to reset my Xbox password.

I have tried numerous times to provide information associated with the account in the “Account Recovery” support page, but it always comes back as insufficient. While I have access to a chunk of information, some of it has been lost to time, as it’s been nine years since it’s been used. I’ve attempted to recover the account before in the past, but it’s hard to give up when I have so many games and achievements linked to that old account. Phone support is unavailable for this issue, and the chat assistant does not understand the issue I’m having and constantly links me to a slew of unhelpful webpages that all result in dead ends. Is there any hope for recovering this account?

:)

Janice V.

Hello and welcome to our community!

We’re excited to have you here and have great conversations! I'd be happy to be of assistance.

I'm sorry to hear about this issue. Since you know the email address and it's a third-party email, I recommend reaching out to Yahoo Support https://en-global.help.yahoo.com/kb/account) to see if they can reactivate the email. This would allow you to reset your password and receive the reset link at that address.

However, if they are unable to reactivate the email, the only way to recover your account is by filling out the Account Recovery form: https://account.live.com/acsr.

Once you submit the form, someone from the Microsoft Account Recovery team will contact you via email to assist with recovering your compromised account. Additionally, when filling out the form, please avoid leaving any fields blank. If you're unsure about certain details, provide your best guess instead.

Please note that this is an online public forum, and while we help fellow gamers by sharing our knowledge and experiences, we do not have access to any accounts.

Hope the information above helps. Let me know if you need further assistance. Thanks!

kucfer420

Thank you for your swift response!

However, to link my old email address to my hotmail account is not possible as i can only link other hotmail email addresses to my hotmail account.

I tried to recover my old email address and was informed by the email address provider that it was not only deactivated but also terminated and not recoverable as i havent used it in 10+ years.

Is there any other way to help change my old xbox live email address? Perhaps microsoft could change it manually? Given that i can verify that it is my account via Identification card, phone number or facebook as i use the same email address there as i do on my xboxlive account.

TheSamazoid

I would like to only deactivate my xbox account, but not my email as I already have used this email for various things. This is very frustrating that i cannot find how to deactivate ONLY the xbox live account.

ABAxStorm

Unfortunately, if the attached email is deactivated and you have added no other means to recover the account, you cannot get it back. Sorry!

GrampaSmokes

After a period of time your account is deactivated or deleted. If you ever remember her info you can recover account. If you remember the gamertag contact Xbox live support and they maybe able to help recover.

Recovering an Old Xbox Live Account with a deactivated email