Password & Account Recovery

How to Merge Microsoft Accounts with an Inaccessible Email Address

Maira Mehtab Sep 27, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user wants to merge two Microsoft personal accounts to retrieve important OneNote notebooks from an old account where the associated email address is no longer accessible.

Product: Microsoft Account / OneNote
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Consolidating accounts and migrating notes from an old, inaccessible account into a new or active Microsoft account.
Observed behavior: Microsoft personal accounts cannot be merged natively, leaving the user unable to access or migrate their saved OneNote data directly without first recovering the old account.

Before you start

Before proceeding, gather any past passwords, security questions, linked phone numbers, or previous billing information associated with your inaccessible Microsoft account to help verify your identity during the recovery process.

Solution 1Recommended

Recover Account Access and Manually Transfer Notebooks

Since Microsoft accounts cannot be merged, you must first regain access to your old account via the official recovery process, then manually export or copy your data to the new account.

Microsoft policy strictly prohibits the merging of personal Microsoft accounts. Consequently, data such as OneNote notebooks, OneDrive files, and digital purchases cannot be automatically consolidated.

To save your important notebooks, the only viable workaround is to restore access to the inaccessible account and perform a manual data migration to your active account.

Submit a Recovery Request

Navigate to the Microsoft account recovery page (account.live.com/acsr). Enter the email address of the inaccessible account and a secondary email where Microsoft can contact you, then fill out the requested verification details.

Log into OneNote

Once your identity is verified and you regain access, open the OneNote desktop application and log in using the credentials of the recovered account.

Export or Copy the Notebooks

Navigate to 'File' > 'Export' in OneNote to save the notebooks locally to your computer. Alternatively, log into your new Microsoft account simultaneously and manually copy the sections from the old notebook to a newly created notebook.

Import to the New Account

If you exported the files, open the saved local notebooks in OneNote and use the 'Share on Web or Network' feature to upload and sync them to your new, active Microsoft account.

Contact Microsoft Support: If the automated account recovery form is unsuccessful, you will need to contact Microsoft's account-recovery support directly, as only they have the authority to escalate access issues.

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1. Install WPS Office: Download and install the free WPS Office suite from the official website on your preferred device.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I transfer a Microsoft 365 subscription to my new account?

No, Microsoft 365 subscriptions cannot be transferred between accounts. If you switch to a new account, you must turn off recurring billing on the old account and purchase a new subscription on the active account.

What happens to my OneNote data if I can never recover the old email address?

If you cannot pass the Microsoft account recovery verification and have no local backups on your devices, the data stored exclusively on that account's OneDrive (including cloud-synced OneNote notebooks) cannot be retrieved.

How do I export OneNote notebooks if I am using a Mac?

The OneNote for Mac application currently does not support exporting entire notebooks as local files. To migrate notebooks on a Mac, you must open both accounts in the app and manually copy the sections/pages from the old notebook into a new notebook on the active account.

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