Hotmail accounts are having some serious issues with users getting locked out and unable to regain access. Recently, a LibreOffice developer found themselves in this exact predicament, among others. This situation seems to stem from a lack of support for the old email host.
LibreOffice developer Mike Kaganski recently found his Microsoft account locked without explanation when trying to send an email from his Hotmail address. While Microsoft claimed he violated their service agreement, Kaganski stated he was never told what specific content justified the ban. The real kicker is that he couldn’t even reach support or file an appeal easily because contacting a representative required logging into an account that was no longer accessible.
This isn’t an isolated incident, either. Even some writers atTechSpothave experienced strikingly similar problems when trying to recover their Hotmail accounts. They ran into endless loops of 404 errors and broken pages, even when attempting to use secondary email addresses and SMS-based two-factor authentication.
It is clear that this is a widespread and ongoing issue when you look around Reddit. Users onr/WindowsHelpandr/Outlookhave been posting about their Hotmail accounts being locked for months. This whole mess suggests that the issue isn’t just a rare bug, but a broader problem with Hotmail itself.
Hotmail is one of the oldest free email hosts around, and it was replaced by Live before that was replaced by Outlook. Due to its age, it’s not hard to imagine that there is some neglect in the recovery process for Hotmail. However, it’s honestly baffling that one of the world’s largest tech companies has such a messy and somewhat broken system for account recovery.
The core problem is how difficult it is to get back into your account once it’s locked. Kaganski’s attempts to verify his account using his phone failed because Microsoft’s verification method for Hotmail simply does not exist. When he finally managed to file a ticket for an appeal form using his wife’s account, the system just repeated the same unhelpful instructions and closed the ticket.
Based on plenty of Reddit threads, many accounts just get signed out over time. If you don’t remember the password, or it sees you using a different device than it is used to, that’s it. Once you are locked out, there is no simple way to get access to your Hotmail again.
One particularlyfrustrating threadwas about a user’s mother’s Hotmail account being flagged for suspicious activity while traveling. After entering the wrong password a few times, the account got locked. Even with the correct password, they couldn’t receive a security code to their recovery email (which was confirmed to be working).
Reddit user u/AccomplishedCut9437 spent over 20 hours dealing with Microsoft’s chat support, which reportedly gave false information and even closed the case for no reason. It’s an absolute nightmare when you have important personal matters, like retirement and medical appointments, tied to an account you can’t access, and Microsoft isn’t providing any real help.
So, if you’re still using a Hotmail account, it might be time to switch to a different email provider, or at least make sure your passwords and recovery methods are fully updated.
