Questions Re: an "old" email address

mark1969

New Email
Hello everyone and anyone
Sorry if this is too long a post...it's my first.
I'd be really grateful if anyone could help me out on this.
I've used email for over a decade but not in any great depth...

I have some questions connected to ...well basically hotmail / live email but also I'm wondering how the upgrade to outlook might affect these.

I'd like to try and re-connect with a few people I've fallen out of contact with for a number of years. None of us are (were) social media types - but I do of course have email ads and I like to use them.

(1) I'm wondering how email works in this trype of situation. Are hotmail / live accounts automatically deleted if they fall out of use? And in that case would I recieve some kind of error if my mails could not be delivered?

(2) Alternatively, if I send an receive no error...is there any way of establishing if the email accounts in question are still in use - via a last login date or etc etc?

(3) Or is there a way that a read-receipt can be added to an email so that I'd be able to feel assured that my mails had been read?


Sorry if these are basic but it'd be really great to know the situation. I have no idea unfortunately...

thanks for reading
mark
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Hi Mark,

Here are the answers to your questions.

1) Yes, Microsoft deletes inactive Hotmail.com and Outlook.com accounts. Inactive Hotmail accounts will be deleted after 120 days. Yes, if you email an inactive account you will get a bounce message, most likely indicating that the email address no longer exists. Warning! After 365 days it is possible for someone else to register under the old username that was inactive/deleted.

2) No, you can not see the login history for other Hotmail accounts.

3) Read-receipts are not reliable. You can try using a mail program on your computer to send/receive your Hotmail, such as Windows Live Mail, and configure it to request read receipts. Do not make the assumption that you'll be notified about read emails, or that the lack of a read receipt means you can assume an email was not opened.

:welcome: to Email Questions!
 

mark1969

New Email
Thanks a lot for that Popowich
I'm surprised about the 120 days on hotmail - I think I've probably gone over that without using my email myself on more than a few occasions over the years. Has that been introduced recently?..

I'm not sure how hotmail relates to live? But, if I understand, would I be correct in saying I could log in to hotmail via live and then try to use read receipts on messages sent to people with @live email ads - or is it also possible to @hotmail accounts as well do you know?

I appreciate your help. But regret that after sending I may be in the "grey zone" of not knowing what happens after the mails are sent!!
thanks again
mark
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Hi Mark,

The inactivity and eventual account deletion for inactive accounts has been around many years. The number of days may have changes here and there, but it's definitely not something that was recently introduced.

Windows Live Mail is a mail program that runs on your computer and can connect to Hotmail (and Outlook.com) and any other mail service that supports POP3 or IMAP logins. Again, it's your option to request read receipts, but they are generally not supported or ignored.

Are you sending the same email to these groups of people? MailChimp is a nice service that's free for small senders and can probably give you some potentially better tracking options than read receipts for your emails to your group of contacts. Even if it's just a one time mailing and you use the results to help you figure out which email addresses in your list are still good email addresses.
 
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