Need help with "Your OneDrive account is about to be deleted"

Winuser · Apr 5, 2025

Donozo said:
Again, I'm logging in via a browser and not via PC's onedrive. The PC I use has a different MS account that has nothing to do with the personal email address I use at Outlook. I do everything via MS website using onedrive.live.com and account.microsoft.com

I'm not understanding why you are using two MS accounts . Because of that I'm out of ideas so I can't be of any help. Did you try typing in I understand to see what happens?

Edit: When I go to my MS Account my Outlook email is not the email address I use for my MS account. That and I haven't used the Outlook email address in years.

cheaterslick · Apr 5, 2025

I got that email, too. I ignored it

Lot's of phishing scams out there. I avoid opening any links in an email.

Donozo · Apr 5, 2025

Winuser said:
I'm not understanding why you are using two MS accounts . Because of that I'm out of ideas so I can't be of any help. Did you try typing in I understand to see what happens?

You are not understanding why I browse the web on my gf's PC you mean?

edit: apologies, I didn't notice the last part of your sentence.
No, I did not type that as I don't want to extend the 'freezing' period; I need to find a permanent solution to this before I use that. Thanks.

@cheaterslick ,
I'm with you on that. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't click any links, I visited MS directly.

As to being a phishing email, in this particular case, the email seems to be legit. Do a search on that particular email address and you will see a lot of controversial responses on the web but one stands out coming from an MS representative who states a list of email addresses that are legit.

edit: here is the link where I found that the email address that sent me the message is -probably- legit:

Redirecting

Also, what the email describes (even the exact date that the account will be deleted) shows up on my account as well.

What I'm currently trying to find out how to, is to contact someone from MS. I never realised they have gone to such lengths to isolate themselves from their users.

Winuser · Apr 5, 2025

Donozo said:
No, I did not type that as I don't want to extend the 'freezing' period; I need to find a permanent solution to this before I use that. Thanks.

I have no idea why MS would want to freeze your account. Your nowhere near having your OneDrive space filled and I'm guessing that by accessing your Outlook email it would be considered as accessing your MS account. I have a feeling that your going to eventually have to use the I understand option to stop your MS account from being deleted. Until I checked my account trying to help you I totally forgot that I even had a Outlook email address. I'm not even sure why I set it up. I do hope you get it straightened out.

cheaterslick · Apr 5, 2025

Donozo said:
View attachment 130452

Also, what the email describes (even the exact date that the account will be deleted) shows up on my account as well.

What I'm currently trying to find out how to, is to contact someone from MS. I never realised they have gone to such lengths to isolate themselves from their users.

Why could be they froze your account because you haven't used it in a long time. I'm sure that's why I got the email.

Last time I signed in was about 2 years ago.

Donozo · Apr 5, 2025

Ok. I don't normally give up easily but after 12+ hours on this I don't see anything else I'm able to do.
The only way I found to contact them was via the feedback button. I explained the problem in detail there and ticked the 'you may contact me' box. That's it.

What I'm going to do next is use an email client and, via pop, I will download all my emails there so I can have them as backups (will probably use Thunderbird).
MS outlook is over for me. No wonder why everyone switches to gmail. Never used G products (I particularly hate Chromium) but it is time I change my mind on that.

Winuser · Apr 5, 2025

Donozo said:
MS outlook is over for me. No wonder why everyone switches to gmail. Never used G products

I've been using Gmail for years and never had any problems. I also have my One Calendar app setup to use my Gmail account. It's nice that no matter what device I enter info into One Calendar, including my cell phone, it's available on all of my devices.

cheaterslick · Apr 5, 2025

Donozo said:
What I'm going to do next is use an email client and, via pop, I will download all my emails there so I can have them as backups (will probably use Thunderbird).

Good choice!

And you can backup your Thunderbird profile as well.

Donozo said:
MS outlook is over for me. No wonder why everyone switches to gmail. Never used G products (I particularly hate Chromium) but it is time I change my mind on that.

I use outlook, gmail and yahoo accounts and link them all up with Thunderbird. Been doing that for years.

Privacy-wise, they're all about the same. If you're looking for more privacy then a protonmail account would help out.

Proton

Our encrypted services let you control who has access to your emails, plans, files, and online activity. Free plans are available.

account.proton.me

Helmut · Apr 5, 2025

a. Yes.
b. Yes.
c. It is only the OneDrive space that will be deleted, your Email address remains.
d. If you are 100% certain you will never use OneDrive on that Account then you can just do nothing.

However, I would think about that some more i.e. no auto-rejection mode.

Also look up the T&C of your MS Account, including the OneDrive part, you can also find more details and means of unfreezing the OneDrive part of the account.

In your post #6 use that "Unfreeze your account" button.

What they are saying is use your OneDrive within 30 days. Just make some folders with some TXT files or backup something. Occasionally change those to make sure it is not frozen again.

"how can I contact Microsoft" actually no need to do that, often you will get an obscure non-understandable answer.

I'm a user and this has happened to one of my MS(Outlook) accounts.

"OneDrive = Outlook."
It is not, OneDrive has different T&C and can be deleted separately through non-use.

It will take me a while to find the references on the Microsoft Website, so I may post later.

Fabler2 · Apr 5, 2025

Something isn't right here.

Try going to your online OneDrive account via Outlook and see if you get that warning that way.

I use the "new" Outlook app.

Select settings - accounts (on the left) then storage. Click the OneDrive link there. I use that as I've uninstalled OneDrive.

Spunk · Apr 5, 2025

If not discussed yet, Try these suggestions:

Why did I get an email saying your account will be deleted? - Microsoft Support

To stop your OneDrive from being deleted, simply sign in to onedrive.com to reactivate your account.

support.microsoft.com

What does it mean when your OneDrive account is frozen? - Microsoft Support

Learn how to unfreeze your OneDrive account if it has been inactive over 12 months.

support.microsoft.com

Donozo · Apr 5, 2025

@Fabler2 ,
this is what I get:

The occupied storage shows normally both in outlook->storage and when I look via my account.microsoft.com->storage, by 'normally' I mean that I get no errors whatsoever.

The problem I have - which *might* have already been answered by @Helmut - is whether the loss of OneDrive might affect my email. It really is not that clear on any MS FAQ I had a look at.

johnnyzero2 · Apr 5, 2025

Easy: the originating email domain (@infomail.microsoft.com) tells you it's not from Microsoft. It's a phishing scam, designed to harvest your MS account credentials.

bobkn · Apr 5, 2025

johnnyzero2 said:
Easy: the originating email domain (@infomail.microsoft.com) tells you it's not from Microsoft. It's a phishing scam, designed to harvest your MS account credentials.

Or not.

Redirecting

antspants · Apr 5, 2025

johnnyzero2 said:
Easy: the originating email domain (@infomail.microsoft.com) tells you it's not from Microsoft. It's a phishing scam, designed to harvest your MS account credentials.

That’s actually wrong, it looks fine to me, as long as it ends in the . (dot) domainname.
Example: whatever.domainname.com the domain (address) is legit, as long as you can verify or know that the end of the domain (address) .domainname.com is the legitimate domain. And as long as you can verify that the email isn’t being spoofed in the header. (Another story)

This type of domain name is called a “Sub Domain”

Another example: lets say my domain is antsypantsy.com
If I add omg. to the beginning of the domain, I am creating a “Sub Domain” omg.antsypantsy.com
As long as .antsypantsy.com is the actual domain name (at the end)

The subdomain is/has to be setup on the domain server within the main domain and can then be used as a legitimate domain address. You could easily create email addresses or another website (using the subdomain as the address) within the sub domain as it is isolated from the main domain name on the server.

This would be no different than an address like mail@noreply.microsoft.com (as another example) noreply.microsoft.com is a “Sub Domain”

For reference:

Subdomain:
A subdomain is a prefix added to the main domain name, creating a separate section within the website.
Domain Name:
The domain name is the part of the address that comes after the subdomain, for example, "domainname" in name.domainname.com.
Top-Level Domain (TLD):
The TLD is the extension at the end of the domain name, such as ".com", ".org", or ".net" etc.
Example:
In name.domainname.com, "name" is the subdomain, "domainname" is the domain, and ".com" is the TLD (domain extension).

antspants · Apr 5, 2025

Infomail@microsoft.microsoftmail.com would be illegitimate, as the domain name hierarchy in this case is .microsoftmail.com and not a legitimate Microsoft address

johnnyzero2 · Apr 5, 2025

antspants said:
That’s actually wrong, it looks fine to me, as long as it ends in the . (dot) domainname.
Example: whatever.domainname.com the domain (address) is legit, as long as you can verify or know that the end of the domain (address) .domainname.com is the legitimate domain.

You're right, I stand (somewhat) corrected.

Yes, that infomail subdomain (if it actually existed on MS's servers) + microsoft.com would indeed resolve to Microsoft. So it's definitely a spoofed sender address, as you said. It's also a really dumb choice on the part of the scammer, if they're actually trying to fool someone. Why didn't they just spoof it as coming from @microsoft.com, which would arouse much less suspicion in most users? Dummies.

btw, if you Google infomail.microsoft.com, you'll see that it's a commonly-used spoof sender domain for these phishing scammers, especially those doing the OneDrive scam.

antspants · Apr 5, 2025

johnnyzero2 said:
So it's definitely a spoofed sender address

But it isn’t a spoofed sender address. It’s a subdomain address.

johnnyzero2 said:
if you Google infomail.microsoft.com, you'll see that it's a commonly-used spoof sender domain

Google is wrong.

The only way that address (subdomain) could be a spoof is if it’s done with a hack and it should show in the email header.

antspants · Apr 5, 2025

Infomail is the subdomain and would most likely return a no reply message if you tried to reply to the email address as it would be redirected as such at Microsoft and you would possibly get a can not deliver reply in your email client.

One of the ways to identify whether an email is from Microsoft support is to check the sender's email address. Microsoft support uses the following domains to send emails:

microsoft.com
microsoftsupport.com
mail.support.microsoft.com

Any name. that precedes those domains is a subdomain (as in the last address above which is a is a subdomain of microsoft.com subdomain = mail.support. - mail.support.microsoft.com)

microsoft.com
&
microsoftsupport.com
Are two legitimate microsoft Domains

Again: icanhaveanynamehere.microsoft.com would be a legitimate subdomain. The deciding factor is .microsoft.com
.

idgat · Apr 5, 2025

Donozo said:
via pop

Why POP? Unless you're careful with the settings on whatever email client you use, you're likely to delete the emails off the mail server.

EDIT
When (hopefully not If?) you get this sorted, just make sure you get the h3ll out of both OneDrive and Outlook. Most of the forums on the internet would cease to exist if it wasn't because of these 2 Microsoft abominations

Need help with "Your OneDrive account is about to be deleted"

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Why did I get an email saying your account will be deleted? - Microsoft Support​

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Why did I get an email saying your account will be deleted? - Microsoft Support

What does it mean when your OneDrive account is frozen? - Microsoft Support