Streamer Joshua Hein complained to X that Microsoft permanently locked his account after it was hacked — and the company is refusing to unblock it, despite confirming that the account does indeed belong to him.
Streamer Joshua Hein complained to X that Microsoft permanently locked his account after it was hacked — and the company is refusing to unblock it, despite confirming that the account does indeed belong to him.
After the hack, the attacker changed all the data to regain access to the account. As a result, Hein lost access to the data he had accumulated for about 25 years, including files on OneDrive, which included photos of his young son.
In response, the support service informed Hein that the company’s internal rules prohibit employees from restoring accounts if security settings have been changed after the hack — such a lock is considered «permanent and necessary to prevent further abuse» by the company. According to Microsoft, all content associated with the account — purchases, photos, OneDrive files — cannot be restored, and even the company’s engineers do not have access to these files due to the features of encryption and privacy protection mechanisms. The only recommendation that Hein received was to create a new account and re-purchase games and other digital services.
Microsoft DELETED my account AND OneDrive?! After ACKNOWLEDGING that I’m the owner of the account and that it was compromised???
— Joshua Khane (@JoshuaKhane) July 14, 2026
25 fucking years of data, thousands of euros spent on games? My son’s baby pictures? GONE!
All because MICROSOFT couldn’t bring back a… pic.twitter.com/sItv5eQFAQ
As Neowin notes, Microsoft’s terms of service formally allow the company to do just that. Files in OneDrive are encrypted with individual AES-256 keys, and the keys themselves are additionally protected in Azure Key Vault — that is, after the final loss of the ability to restore the account, access to the data becomes technically impossible even for the company itself.
Microsoft’s policies also state that the company can suspend an account and restrict access to content if there is a risk of fraudulent use, and access can be restored after the owner’s identity is verified. However, Hein claims that he was not given this option.
Hein’s post from July 14 had garnered 3.8 million views at the time of publication; users' opinions in the comments were divided — some criticized Microsoft’s policy, while others believed that the streamer should have taken account protection more seriously.
Hein himself admitted that he could have paid more attention to security, but emphasized that what angered him the most was Microsoft’s position on the impossibility of restoring the account. He later added that it was not only about lost personal data, but also about games worth thousands of euros, to which he lost access because he did not make backup copies of them, counting on Microsoft to retain access to purchased content even after the account was hacked.
