After you sign up for Microsoft Office Live Small Business, you may be asked to confirm that you are the owner of the e-mail address that you used to sign up for your account. This simple e-mail verification process protects you and other Office Live Small Business users from the fraudulent use of e-mail addresses.

Read on to resolve some of the known issues that may occur as you validate your e-mail address.

Find my Inbox

To find the Inbox for any account that you created using Office Live Small Business, you must sign in using the e-mail address and password for that account. If you have more than one account, you may have signed in to Office Live Small Business using an account that is not associated with the e-mail that you want to read. If you want to use a different account, you can sign in again.

Find my verification e-mail message

After you sign up for a new Office Live Small Business account, the Office Live Small Business team sends an e-mail message instructing you how to verify that you own the e-mail address that you used to sign up for your account. If you do not receive an e-mail message from the Office Live Small Business team, try one of the following:

• Check your Junk Mail folder:  The message may have been mistakenly delivered to your Junk Mail folder instead of your Inbox.

• Check your Deleted Items folder:  You may have accidentally deleted the e-mail message.

• Check your Inbox e-mail address:  You may be logged on using a different e-mail address than the one you used to sign up for an Office Live Small Business account.

• Request another verification e-mail:  To have another verification e-mail message sent to you, do the following:

  1. Sign in to the Windows Live e-mail verification page using your e-mail address and password.

  2. On the Verify e-mail address page, make sure that your e-mail address is correct, and then click Send me verification e-mail.

  3. In your Inbox, look for a message that has Confirm your e-mail address for Windows Live in the subject line. Click the link in the e-mail message, and follow the instructions.

  4. On the Windows Live e-mail verification page, click Sign out in the upper-right corner.

  5. Browse to Office Live Small Business and sign in using your e-mail address. The Office Live Small Business Home page appears.

• Check with your e-mail provider:  As part of an antispam effort, your e-mail provider may block the verification e-mail messages from reaching your Inbox. Contact your e-mail provider to learn ways to unblock these e-mail messages.

Sign up using an e-mail address that is not associated with an e-mail Inbox

If you are unable to activate your Office Live Small Business account through the e-mail verification process, you may have signed up for an account using an e-mail address that is not associated with an e-mail Inbox. You must sign up again using an e-mail address that has an associated e-mail Inbox. If you prefer, you can create a free Web e-mail account, and then use that new e-mail address to sign up for Office Live Small Business.

Clear the cookie cache

If your e-mail verification process fails repeatedly, you may need to clear the cookie cache in your Internet browser. If you use Windows Internet Explorer, follow these steps:

1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools, and then click Internet Options.

2. On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Delete.

3. On the Delete Browsing History dialog box, click Delete cookies, and then click Yes.

4. Close all of your browser windows.

5. Open a new browser window, and browse to Office Live Small Business. Sign in with the e-mail address and password that you used to sign up for your account. Office Live Small Business appears.

To learn how to clear the cookie cache in a Mozilla Firefox browser, read Firefox Help.

Stop repeated e-mail verification requests

If you have already verified your account, but whenever you try to sign in to Office Live Small Business, you are asked to verify your account again, Office Live Small Business may have temporarily saved your unverified e-mail address. Try signing out of Office Live Small Business, and then sign in again.

If e-mail verification requests continue to appear, you may have additional e-mail addresses linked to your Windows user account. These additional e-mail addresses may not have passed the e-mail verification process. To remove unverified e-mail addresses from your account, do the following:

1. Browse to the Windows Live ID sign-in page, and sign in using your Windows Live ID.

2. On the Account Summary page, under Linked Windows Live IDs, click Manage your linked IDs.

3. On the Manage Linked IDs page, next to the Windows Live ID that you want to remove, click Unlink.

4. On the Unlink ID page, click Unlink.

Contact customer support

If these troubleshooting procedures do not help you verify your e-mail address, contact Microsoft Office Live Small Business support.