So you want to change your primary mail but can't ...

Question

Hi!
I ran into the same problem as a lot of other people seem to have done.
I am changing ISP and because of that I have to change my mail address from my 10 year old [e-mail removed for privacy and security] to something else, this time I choose to use an outlook.com address in the hope that I will be able to keep that a bit longer.
last week I realized that my skype account had my old expiring address as the primary mail, and that the primary mail was the only mail that skype will use for communication with me - I already had 2 other mail addresses in my skype profile (outlook.com and gmail). The skype account was created last summer using my microsoft account, and the microsoft account is the only means I have for accessing the skype account. So I logged on and opended the profile page, went on to edit the info and marked my outlook mail as the primary, clicked save and got the password question. I entered the password I use for logging on (ie the microsoft account password), but was told that the password was wrong. I tried everything and some more things, I spent 40-50 minutes on a text chat with skype support, only to be told that it can't be done and that the skype account was hard tied to the mail address I had used when creating the account, which I found very strange as I had used my microsoft account. yes, when I created the skype account, the only mail I had connected to the microsoft account was my "[e-mail removed for privacy and security]" mail, but I have since then, without any problems, been able to create an outlook.com address, and have that added, added a gmail account, set the outlook.com as the primary for the microsoft account and remove the "[e-mail removed for privacy and security]" address from the microsoft account. no problem.
The problem is actually worse as the mail account will be free for use after april 1, which means that a person claiming that mail address will risk getting extremely confusing mails regarding a skype account they don't have, they will have difficulties creating a skype account of their own, AND they can take over my skype account (as they are the owners of the mail address) and I won't be able to stop them.
How is that for security
Fortunately I spent 2 more hours and stumbled on the solution
This is where a normal scam artist would ask you to click on a link to a web apge that would releive you of all your money, but I won't do that.
so, what is going on when you want to change the primary email, why isn't your password accepted???
It turns out that when you create a skype account using your microsoft account (and I guess  your facebook account), skype will actually create a "proper" skype user account as well, but they hide it from you, and you won't get a password set for it. It is the password for this "hidden" account you have to enter when you want to change the primary password It turns out that I was also unable to connect my facebook account to my skype account for the very same reason, but here it was more obvious, as I had to enter my skype username and passwor when connecting the accounts, and the microsoft account wasn't accepted there .
so what do you need to do? well - those of you who have a smart tv (or some other device) that can't log on to skype using a microsoft account, have already done the work (provided you use that tv/device with skype)
you log on to skype and open the account settings page, on the line below "microsoft account   [email protected]  unlink           change microsoft password" you'll see a line saying "TV or Device" or something similar (I have no idea what the english text is) here you have a link you can click on where you will be prompted to enter the password for your "live:username" account. once you have  done that you get instructions saying that for smart TVs etc, you enter "live:username" as the skye user and the newly created password as your password.
The good news is that you now have 1) the identity of your skype user ("live:" and your name where the user name is the combined string "live:username" which in my case was "live:myname"); and 2) a password that is valid for your skype account.
what I did next was open up the profile page, edit the profile, mark the outlook.com mail address asthe primary, click save and when prompted for the password, I entered the password I set in the previous step, and that's it, I now had a new primary mail (I got the confirmation mai sent to the new mail address right after I updated the info in skype). I also successfully removed my soon defunct mail address from the mail address list in my skype account, and I then connected my facebook account to my skype account (using live:myname ase the username and my shiny new password).
So at the moment I have three different methods available to me when logging in to skype:
- my microsoft account
- my skype user (live:myname)
- my facebook account.
the ONLY thing to be aware of is that the name of the microsoft account, as presented on the account settings page in skype, still is my old [e-mail removed for privacy and security] mail address NOTE that this is a presentation issue only, someone thought that it was a good idea to save the original name of the microsoft account in the skype database and use that for presentation. It is NOT used when logging on, when you log on it will use the UID of you rmicrosoft account. if it disturbs you, you can always disconnect you rmicrosoft account from your skype account and reconnect it, and you should see the current mail address associated with the microsoft account. (this is safe to do because you have at least one other method to log on )
I hope that skype will amend their FAQ with this info. I did enter into a second chat with skype support, explaining what I díd to resolve the problem they failed to solve. so there it at least 2 people at skype support who know how to resolve the problem.
-cheers,
Anders

Answer 1

Claudius,
either you didn't read my post, or you jumped to conclusions.
I had a skype account that was created using a microsoft account (NOT THE ACCOUNT I AM USING NOW). PURE MICROSOFT ACCOUNT NO OTHER ACCOUNT LINKING.
I had to change the primary mail of that account.
I was told "no can do" by skype support.
I found that if I went to account settings and clicked on the link on the line below the one that said "MICROSOFT etc" (labeled something along the lines of "TV or Device") I got the opportunity to set the password of the "live:username" account (WHICH YOU COINCIDENTALLY HAVE TO DO IF YOU WANT TO USE SMART TVs ETC).
Once that was done, I COULD SUCCESSFULLY DO WHAT SKYPE SUPPORT SAID WAS IMPOSSIBLE- I could change the primary mail address.
once that was done, and NOT BEFORE, I linked the account to a facebook account as well, just to be sure I have more than one way to access the skype account.
What caused you to get the impression that I was writing something else?
furthermore this sentence - "The solution you described in your initial message isn't actually once since all the time you were operating on different account that weren't actually linked" does not make sense, I think you mis-edited it.
and I need to point out that you are incorrect. I WAS NOT OPERATING ON DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS I WAS OPERATING ON ONE SKYPE ACCOUNT, THAT WAS CREATED USING A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT just like you say you recommend. I still don't know how you can misread my initial entry like that.
If you have a better solution to my initial problem - changing the primary mail of a skype account created throuth either a microsoft account or a facebook account, Please write a sticky to explain how to do it, and please inform skype support that Yes it can be done, and this is the way it is done. So far my "lucky shot" seems to be the only way to do it.