Hello Chris,
I'm Ibhadighi and I'd happily help you with your question. In this forum, we are Microsoft consumers just like yourself.
It sounds like you have two different types of accounts associated with the same email address in Outlook: one personal and one business. This situation typically occurs with Microsoft accounts where one is a personal Microsoft account and the other is managed through Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365) as a work or school account.
Here’s a straightforward way to handle this:
1. Choose an Account Type When Prompted: When you see the pop-up asking you to choose between a personal or a business account, select the one you need to access at that moment. Your choice won’t delete or affect the other account; it only determines which account you are accessing.
2. Identify Account Types:
- Personal Account: This is usually tied to services like Outlook.com, OneDrive, Xbox Live, or other personal services.
- Business Account: This is associated with your workplace or school and is managed by an organization’s IT department, giving you access to Microsoft 365 services.
3. Merging Accounts: Microsoft does not support merging of personal and business accounts as they serve different purposes and have different sets of services and permissions. You will need to continue managing them separately.
4. Deleting an Account:
- If you decide you no longer need one of the accounts, you can close it. However, be cautious with this decision as deleting an account is permanent and will result in the loss of all data associated with that account.
- For a personal account, you can close it by visiting the Microsoft account closure page.
- For a business account, you might need to contact your organization's IT department as they manage these accounts.
5. Checking Outlook Version: To check if you are using the classic version of Outlook or a newer one, you can generally tell by the appearance and features, or you can check under `File` > `Office Account` where you’ll find the product information and updates.
If you need specific features or data from both accounts, you should maintain both but manage them separately based on their intended use (personal or business).
I hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Ibhadighi