A hacked account, deleted memories: streamer’s 25-year loss goes viral

For streamer Joshua Khane, the most painful part of losing his Microsoft account wasn’t the games or the money. It was the photos of his son as a baby, stored on OneDrive and, for a brief stretch, presumed gone for good.

Khane said hackers had broken into his account, and that Microsoft responded by permanently deleting it rather than helping him recover it. He said the company had already confirmed he was the real owner, which made the outcome harder to accept.

In total, Khane estimated the account held about 25 years of information: thousands of euros worth of digital purchases, personal files, and those family photos. He shared what he said was an email from Microsoft confirming the suspension was meant to stop further misuse, and warning that some game purchases, including Minecraft, might not be recoverable.

The post spread quickly online, and Xbox Support soon responded directly to Khane, apologizing and saying this was not the experience it wanted hacked-account users to have.

Days later, Khane posted an update: everything was back. ‘I’ve got all my stuff back, my games back, my Microsoft account back,’ he said, confirming that his OneDrive storage, and the photos of his son, had been fully restored.

Still, Khane didn’t let the resolution erase his frustration. He called himself ‘a nobody’ and said he believed his case only moved quickly because the post went viral, raising the question of what happens to users whose complaints never reach that scale.

Wikimedia Commons/by UKER