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I need to remove an MS outlook ghost account which is preventing me syncing with the correct contact database

Phil Jones 0 Reputation points
2025-11-22T11:25:56.0633333+00:00

I'm trying to remove an old MS outlook account. Chat GPT has been helping me to do this by removing the @outlook.com address but it seems M/S has created an A113 ghost account which we cannot seem to remove. We've even changed the primary account to another one and back again but nothing seems to break the connection with this ghost account and even though its not showing in my profile, every time I log in it defaults to this account and its preventing me from syncing my contacts and e-mails with the correct database. Even if we do all of these things in a private window which is supposed to be clean from old cached date etc. Now M/S wont let me change my primary account back now for 7 days so while I wait can anyone help talk me through a solution?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Microsoft Forms | For home
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  1. Q&A Assist
    2025-11-22T11:26:05.5+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    To remove a ghost account in Microsoft Outlook that is preventing you from syncing with the correct contact database, you can follow these steps:

    1. Sign out of Office: Open any Office application (like Word or Excel), go to File > Account, and select Sign out.
    2. Remove the user account from your Office profile:
      • In an Office app, click your name in the upper-right corner and select Switch Account.
      • On the Accounts screen, select Sign out for the account you want to remove.
    3. Clear cached credentials:
      • Open Control Panel and go to Credential Manager.
      • Under Windows Credentials, find the account related to the ghost account and select Remove.
    4. Edit the registry to remove cached identities (be cautious with this step):
      • Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit OK.
      • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\Identities.
      • Locate the ghost account entry and delete it.
      • Also check under the Profiles subkey to ensure you delete any associated profiles.
    5. Log off and log back in to your computer to apply the changes.

    If the problem persists, consider waiting for the 7-day period to change your primary account again, as this may reset some settings related to account associations.

    References:

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