Linked Live IDs disabled

By Sunshine on July 26, 2011 4:12 AM

47 comments

Remember our previous post about Windows live sign-in now set for use with one account? How we were wondering why Linked-IDs was not mentioned in the team’s post when telling how to best set up things in the new design? Well, Winston noticed that Linked IDs have been disabled. Say what? Yea apparently since about July 13th. The option has even been removed from the Options section in the user account page.

Why? For how long? We do not know as there was no post on Inside Windows Live blog about this. Only Windows Live Solution personnel seem to be aware of this. I for one hope the feature was disabled because of improvements not for removal!

We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more! Believe me we are as curious as you when it comes to the reasoning behind this.

Do you use linked-IDs? Let us know in the comments below.

Posted in Featured, News | Tags: ID, Windows Live

Comments

http://twitter.com/jamiet Jamie Thomson

Absolutely yeah, I use them. They’re one of the best features of WL. Can’t believe they would get rid of such a cool feature.
http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved this feature! This was a unique feature that set Hotmail apart from Gmail etc.!

They need to bring it back!
http://www.kazzan.cz/ Kazzan

I use it every day after changes on sign-in page.
http://twitter.com/RandomStanYau Stanley Yau

I used to use linked IDs, but to be honest since Xbox Live, Zune Pass and Windows Phone, I’ve tended to keep everything on a single Live ID to keep things simple!

http://macrosofter.wordpress.com/ quikboy

I’d love to do that, but so much of my stuff and history is integrated with my old @hotmail address, even though I’d like to keep a more professional @live address. If Microsoft could just make it easy to pull all things associated with one Live ID to another, I’d defintely keep one.

http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

I want to make my two IDs the same thing-ish. I added my other one to my main one in Hotmail using POP, but it says I have to link them. And I can’t link them, because the linking feature has been removed.

How do I get all my mail in one inbox?????????????????

Anonymous

Simple. Just forward one Hotmail address to the other.

@KipKniskern:disqus The Disqus commenting system is atrocious on IE in WP7. Could type my comment, but couldn’t use Post As. Had to wait until I got to a PC to reply. :(

http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

But I’d like the mail in my other ID in my main ID…

Anonymous

Well, forwarding will take care of new mail that comes into the secondary account.

But to get older messages will require a bit more finesse. You could set up the WL Mail client, pull in both accounts, and then batch select and move messages from the secondary account to the preferred one. You can also use WL Mail to export the messages from one account and then import them into the other.

http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

I’ll do that. Thanks!
Subject: [liveside] Re: Linked Live IDs disabled

http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

Agreed, it sucks… BUT… it’s fixed in Mango! (has to do w/ IE, apparently)

http://twitter.com/surilamin surilamin

I did initially link my ids when this was first offered, but I’ve since consolidated everything to my main id, to keep thing simpler.
Mukati

I know why it has been disabled. Because there was a serious bug in it.. which I recently noticed. Mine and my wife’s account are linked. I signed into my account and then jumped on to her’s to send an email. Guess what! the email went but with my name! It was my name and her email address which created a huggee problem..

i guess they discovered the bug thats why they took it offline.. maybe fixing it
Rikimini

Damn Yeah.. This guys are killing Windows Live
Custom Computers

Oh great.. one step forward and two steps backward. What more will they change or eliminate next?
Almost seems they are trying to drive away accounts.
http://cid-280a1538334a1cb9.profile.live.com/ Seika

Rarely, but I use it because I need a Live ID where I pretend to be an American to access the marketplace in Windows Phone and some mail came into that one.
Accidentally set my primary account into a market Microsoft cared less in the past.

Besides, Linked ID is a good way to access the other account when you forgot the password :DAt least the already linked accounts can still be accessed.
Damaster – LiveSide.net

Just to clarify, it seems that the option to create new Linked IDs has been removed at this stage. If you have previously linked your Windows Live IDs, it should still be working (at least for me anyways).
rieuwa

I still see them, but would be very very disappointed to see them go. Sometimes there are things you just need to keep separate.
http://sushovande.6te.net sushovande

Yeah, I still see the IDs that I previously linked together on the drop down on the top right in hotmail.
Anonymous

I think they’ve moved away from linked-ID into the email alias option. They always remove good features though :( I still want my.live.com the msn version is so much worse, i’ve been struggling to use it since they moved to my.msn.com i’m at the point where i want try something outside mircrosoft’s offerings but that’ll be a fragmented service then :(
Yogi

My Linked IDs are working, but since I have the maximum 5, I couldn’t test adding new ones. So I logged into my wife’s account and went to Linked IDs and it gave me the error message, “Sorry, this service isn’t available right now. If you’ve linked any IDs, they’ll still be linked when the service is restored,” as seen in the attached screenshot.

Alvaro

I have 4 “You’ve reached the maximum number of IDs.” So maximum is 4 or 5? Maybe is number you linked in the past. I cannot link more accounts in the future.

Yogi

It was always a maximum of 5 for me in the past, but from Kip Kniskern’s post below, it looks like whatever you are at currently is now the max. In addition, I was getting intermittent SQL error pages when trying to load account.live.com, but now it doesn’t work at all and just redirects to the main Live page.

http://www.LiveSide.net Kip Kniskern – LiveSide.net

I was able to successfully “unlink” one of my 5 linked IDs (which was reported as the “maximum allowed”) – but after unlinking, I still was at the “maximum”, even thought I had dropped from 5 to 4 linked IDs.

J_shuang

Yes, I got the same problem as you do.

Sumit Mehta

I have observed that the following features are also not working in Hotmail in firefox and chrome browser:
1. right click context menu is not loading
2. drag and drop mail feature is not working
3. Hotmail Active view feature is not loading.
Christian_hartwig

Why is MS always shooting in their own foot? They had so many unique + great features which they have disabled for no reason. Hope they bring it back, too!
Anonymous

I happen to have multiple Live IDs which are already linked (me at Hotmail and me
at Live), but I actively use only my Hotmail account. I keep the other for the brand and for testing. I don’t maintain any active social connections with it. I also have a linked account that’s tied to a non-Microsoft email address, which again I just use for testing. I hear a lot of people complaining about the loss of this feature, but let’s not jump to conclusions about why they did it or whether the change is permanent.

So I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a second here. In the past, WL had a lot of limitations that practically necessitated juggling multiple IDs and logging in every time you switched between them was a pain. But these days, you can manage multiple email accounts from your Hotmail inbox, and you can have aliases without managing multiple accounts. I can make multiple calendars under one account. What’s the other primary advantage to having multiple IDs? Increased SkyDrive storage, which is at best a hack?

Encouraging people to create and link Live IDs creates a lot of confusion all the way around. It makes the service seem more complex than necessary to new users, and even experienced users may find it creates complications and headaches. Case in point: I’m friends with someone (who shall remain nameless), and she has (at least) two Live IDs that she routinely uses interchangeably. Why? Because she used to have two Spaces. Net result: I end up seeing her twice in Messenger, and a lot of her stuff that’s cross-posted between her accounts (including some, but not all Web Activities) ends up duplicated on my social stream. Being friends with someone on FB and WL is confusing enough without adding multiple Live IDs to the mix.

BTW, I see people talking about married couples and family members linking their IDs. WTH is that about? Being married doesn’t make you one person. It reminds me of those people who use FB as “DickAndJane Doe.” You can never decide exactly whom you’re talking to, and it’s generally obvious that one spouse (usually the one I’m not friends with) is monopolizing the shared account. It’s just annoying. Folks, there’s no advantage to linking IDs except to make it easier for one person to switch between them. If you look at the blog posts regarding the recent changes to the WL login page and the removal of multiple profiles, it’s the same underlying theme. Set up a separate Windows login for each of you, then use the service separately…as God intended.

In my opinion, it just makes more sense to start weaning users from maintaining multiple personalities on WL, especially if Microsoft are moving toward using your WLID for roaming credentials in Windows 8. If I’m missing something obvious, please let me know. Thanks!

http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

Those are really good points…

I’ve never come across couples sharing a Facebook account, but it sounds annoying.

No

Good riddance for that buggy feature. Get rid of stupid things and add awesome things!

CandidCalum

It wasn’t buggy in any way.

Imgif

i can still use it :o
Josh T.

Huh? It’s still there for me.

http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

Really? How??

Anonymous

They’re still there for me too…
CandidCalum

I link my IDs and I hope this feature isn’t going to be removed for a while or forever. It’s very useful for management of different accounts.
http://macrosofter.wordpress.com/ quikboy

People honestly need to chill. Windows Live team could be a bit more transparent on their blog about this, so people don’t get in a tizzy. It appears that it’s only temporarily not an option, and that they’ll ‘restore’ it as soon as they can. Must be some bug. If Microsoft was removing it, then nobody would see able to access linked IDs if they’ve already had it.
Markeyfarrell

I also LOVED the linked ID’s feature. It alone caused me to use Hotmail and Live as my prime email accounts. I have already created two new g-mail accounts because they can’t fix this “temporary problem”. It has been down for me for over a month now.
Also it is not a problem related to IE alone, as one poster suggested.
WINDOWS LIVE TEAM – - FOCUS on this LINKED ID issue. It is a GREAT feature that set you apart from the rest. Don’t revert back to just one of the vanilla options. FIX IT.
Devsparks_14

Still working fine for me
http://www.facebook.com/tanvaktii Tan Vakti

on’t get me wrong. I’m happy for Messenger and the user population who will benefit from this upgrade. But I’m bummed that the current Messenger solution for WP7, which arguably should have the BEST Messenger solution of any mobile platform,porno is sorely lacking at this time. I mean, have you tried “Messenger by Miyowa?” Not the best
Toni Johnson

“I know why it has been disabled. Because there was a serious bug in it.. which I recently noticed. Mine and my wife’s account are linked. I signed into my account and then jumped on to her’s to send an email. Guess what! the email went but with my name! It was my name and her email address which created a huggee problem.. ”

I recently experienced the above, doing the exact same thing as Mukati, and had to unlink the bound IDs. I am, however, not sure if this is Microsoft’s primary reason for removing the ability use the “Link ID” feature with unlinked IDs while the issue is being addressed, or if the feature is being axed for good.
Ticked Off Texan

YESSS — I USED THIS SERVICE – DAILY – UNTIL IT WAS DISABLED!!! Extremely irritated and displeased this service has been disabled — WITHOUT WARNING OR NOTICE.

Now I have to log in and out of 5 different accounts; there is a REASON I need 5 SEPARATE accounts!! I do NOT want to have to use the FORWARD EMAIL FEATURE to combine emails from ALL 5 of my accts!! I WANT THE LINKED ID’S FEATURE BACK!!

The error message eluded to the service being “temporarily unavailable”; I HOPE that means Windows LIVE is improving it versus PERMANENTLY DISABLING the Linked ID’s feature.

It certainly would have been CUSTOMER FRIENDLY if Windows LIVE sent an email NOTICE TO ALL HOTMAIL/LIVE USERS to advise us and specify their plans — instead of leaving us all in LIMBO — waiting, waiting, waiting. POOR QUALITY ASSURANCE, WINDOWS LIVE TECH SUPPORT!!

Aboosh

I have same problem… A very very nice feature that is unavailable for no apparent reason

IF IT AINT BROKE DON’T FIX IT

I “discovered” the LINKED ID’s feature was “unavailable” when I was UN- Linking several ID’s to add new Linked ID’s. NOW, NONE OF MY ACCOUNTS ARE LINKED.

guest

I have same problem… A very very nice feature that is unavailable for no apparent reason

Aboosh Natah Ashoel

If Capt James T Kirk would do Nancy Grace…..
IMAGINE WHAT KIRK WOULD DO TO THE KLINGONs

My new movie plot Capt James T Kirk and Nancy Grace

Capt Kirk woos Nancy Grace with a huge nasty Klingon Necklace

Then Capt Kirk does Nancy Grace While Mr Spock videos the whole thing

then Mr Spock puts it on the Internet to scare the Klingons

NANCY GRACE IS A SEAT STAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from a leaky anus or an infected vagina

NANCY GRACE EATS BABIES
http://www.facebook.com/people/Elif-Sancaklı/100002470351972 Elif Sancaklı

http://www.videoizle4.net/

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