Change your password from the Hotmail website
Open Hotmail in your browser and sign in with your current password. Once you are logged in, look for your account picture or initial in the top right corner of the screen and click it. A menu will drop down — select View account or Manage your Microsoft account, depending on which version you see.
On the account page, click Security in the left sidebar. You will see a section labeled Password with a Change password button. Click that button. Hotmail will ask you to enter your current password once more to confirm it is really you making this change.
Type your current password in the first box. In the second box, type your new password. Type it again in the third box to confirm you did not make a typo. Your new password should be at least 8 characters long and include uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and a symbol like ! or @ — Hotmail will tell you if your choice is too weak.
Click Next and Hotmail will confirm the change. You are now done. The next time you sign in, use your new password.
Key Takeaways
- You must be signed into Hotmail already to change your password through the website — you cannot change it from the login screen.
- Hotmail requires your new password to contain uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and a symbol to prevent weak passwords.
- If you forget your password before you change it, you will need to use the account recovery process instead of this method.
- After you change your password, you may be signed out of Hotmail on your phone or other devices and will need to sign in again with the new password.
Change your password on a phone or tablet
The process is nearly identical on a phone. Open the Hotmail app or go to outlook.com in your mobile browser and sign in. Tap your account picture or initial in the top right corner. On some phones this appears as a circle; on others it is a small square.
Tap View account. Scroll down and tap Security. Find the Password section and tap Change password. Enter your current password, then your new password twice, and tap Next. The change takes effect when ready.
What happens to your other devices after you change your password
When you change your Hotmail password, you are signed out of the Hotmail app on your phone, tablet, and any other device where you were logged in. This is a security feature — it prevents someone who stole your old password from staying logged in.
You will need to sign back in on each device using your new password. Open the Hotmail app or go to outlook.com, tap or click Sign in, enter your email address, and type your new password when prompted. If you use Hotmail with Outlook on your computer, you may also need to update the password there — Windows will usually prompt you to do this the next time you open Outlook.
If you cannot remember your current password
You cannot change your password from the Hotmail website if you do not remember the current one. Instead, go to the Hotmail sign-in page and click Can't access your account? below the password box. Hotmail will walk you through proving you own the account using a recovery email address or phone number you set up earlier.
Once you have recovered access to your account, you can then change the password using the steps above. If you did not set up a recovery email or phone number when you created your account, the recovery process will be slower and may require you to answer security questions instead.
Create a strong password you can actually remember
A strong password is one a hacker cannot guess by trying common words or patterns. Hotmail requires uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and a symbol — but the order matters more than the complexity. A password like BlueSky$Morning7 is stronger than P@ssw0rd because it does not follow a predictable pattern.
One method that works well is to take a sentence you remember and use the first letter of each word, then add a number and symbol. For example, "My dog ate three socks yesterday" becomes Mdatsy3!. Write this method down somewhere safe — not on a sticky note on your monitor, but in a password manager like Microsoft Authenticator, which comes free with Windows, or in a locked notebook at home.
Do not use the same password for Hotmail that you use for your bank, social media, or work email. If one site is hacked, a criminal could try that password everywhere. Hotmail will not store your password anywhere you can see it later, so if you forget it, you will have to go through the recovery process again.
Why you might want to change your password regularly
You do not need to change your password every month just because time has passed. However, you should change it if you think someone else might know it — for example, if you used the same password on another website that was hacked, or if you typed it in front of someone you no longer trust.
You should also change your password if you notice unusual activity on your account, such as emails in your sent folder that you did not send, or a recovery email address you do not recognize. These signs suggest someone else has access. Change your password when ready, then go to Security and review which devices are signed in — you can sign out any device you do not recognize.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will changing my password delete my emails?
No. Changing your password does not affect your emails, contacts, calendar, or any other data in your account. It only changes the password you use to sign in. All your messages will still be there after you change it.
How long does it take for the password change to take effect?
The change takes effect when ready. You can sign in with your new password right away. However, you may need to wait a few minutes before you can sign in on a phone or tablet, because those devices sometimes take time to sync the change.
Can I change my password if I am signed out of Hotmail?
No, you must be signed in to change your password through the normal method. If you are signed out and do not remember your password, click Can't access your account? on the sign-in page to recover your account first.
What if I change my password and then forget the new one?
You will need to go through the account recovery process using a recovery email address or phone number. This is why it is important to set up a recovery method when you create your account — it is the only way back in if you forget your password.
Do I need to change my password if I just reset it?
No. A password reset and a password change are different things. If you just recovered your account using the Can't access your account? process, you have already set a new password. You do not need to change it again unless you want to.