Rename Microsoft Account

[m4tthall]

So, I have been wanting change my live account from a gmail email address login to an outlook one for some time now. The feature had been disabled for months but I noticed today that it was back online. Now, I know there are some issues with Windows Phone and it gives you the following warning:

You might not want to rename this email address if you've used it to set up a Windows Phone. On your phone, features that use this address will stop working, including Marketplace, Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, email and others. To use these features again on your phone, you'd need to restore it to factory settings, which erases all personal content. Instead of renaming this account, consider setting up an alias. An alias lets you send and receive emails from a new address but doesn't affect your phone settings.

I am happy that I will need to restore the phone and start setting it up from scratch. However, I am wondering whether you get to keep all the purchases you have made or if there are issues around this? Also, are there any issues with Windows 8, as I have a laptop which I have Windows 8 installed. Is there anything else I should be aware of? I also have an MSDN subscription associated with the gmail address, I assume (probably a bad thing) that this won't break?

Essentially I am trying to move away from gmail completely but am obviously cautious as it doesn't sound like it is going to be as simple as rename the account to what I want.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[jhguth]

I switched mine from my gmail to my personal myname.com domain email address and skydrive and xbox and everything still work. I think that warning is dated, it worked fine for me. You also don't lose your purchased apps (another incorrect warning I saw), you just have to re install them.

 

[Noahma]

I just renamed mine a couple weeks ago. Everything migrates with it, so you get all your purchases again. The pain in the rear thing is doing a hard reset on your phone.

So, I have been wanting change my live account from a gmail email address login to an outlook one for some time now. The feature had been disabled for months but I noticed today that it was back online. Now, I know there are some issues with Windows Phone and it gives you the following warning:

You might not want to rename this email address if you've used it to set up a Windows Phone. On your phone, features that use this address will stop working, including Marketplace, Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, email and others. To use these features again on your phone, you'd need to restore it to factory settings, which erases all personal content. Instead of renaming this account, consider setting up an alias. An alias lets you send and receive emails from a new address but doesn't affect your phone settings.

I am happy that I will need to restore the phone and start setting it up from scratch. However, I am wondering whether you get to keep all the purchases you have made or if there are issues around this? Also, are there any issues with Windows 8, as I have a laptop which I have Windows 8 installed. Is there anything else I should be aware of? I also have an MSDN subscription associated with the gmail address, I assume (probably a bad thing) that this won't break?

Essentially I am trying to move away from gmail completely but am obviously cautious as it doesn't sound like it is going to be as simple as rename the account to what I want.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[m4tthall]

Just finished moving over from gmail to outlook address. Everything seems to be working fine, thanks.