How soon are email addresses recycled ?

[RDF]

Hi,

We used to be VM customers but had to leave when we moved and the new house wasn't in a VM area.

It's now 5 years later and we're on our way back into the fold in the next couple of weeks.

Obviously, we used to have NTLworld and Virginmedia addresses then, I've just registered and they are showing as not available.

So I was wondering if there was the slightest chance they were sat dormant (no active mailbox associated with them, but the aliases themselves not available for use. 

How could I go about checking if they had been re-used or were just sat inactive?

Thanks,

Roy

[Graham_A · Accepted solution]

Email addresses are not recycled.  Once deleted the same email address cannot be used again by anyone.

The easiest way to check if the email address is still active is to send a message to it.  If the mailbox has been deleted you should get a non delivery report telling you that the email address could not be found.

[RDF]

Thanks Graham, looks like I'll not be able to get my old address back then 😞
NDR did confirm our old addresses as unknown.