Back in June, I wrote about problems my wife was having when logging into Microsoft in How I Fixed Microsoft Outlook Login Issue and I hoped that the issue would not return. Well, it did, with a vengeance.
Oops! Something Went Wrong
Yesterday, my wife wanted to take her Samsung Book 4 laptop with her to a client meeting, so I offered to make sure it was charged up and ready to go. For the last 12 months, OneDrive and her Microsoft account – she uses Outlook/ex Hotmail (we have a Family Plan for Office 365) and OneDrive across her devices – and lo and behold, she was locked out of her Microsoft account on the laptop, even though she was logged in on her PC.
I suspect that since she hadn’t used it for a while that a security measure kicked in requiring her to submit her credentials again. However, on checking that her password and PIN were correct, I ended up spending hours trying to log her in and tearing my hair out. “Something went wrong” simply doesn’t cut it, nor do Error 400 and “Please try again with a different device…” Not only that, but a persistent Parental Control pop-up kept appearing at startup up insisting that she log in. All efforts to remove that pop-up, including editing services.msc failed, along with trying to log in to Microsoft. Furthermore, the laptop was stuck on Windows 11 Home 23H2, wouldn’t upgrade to 24H2, and anyway, I had a spare key for Windows 11 Pro, so I started from scratch, formatted the drive, and installed Pro.
The login problem persisted, and I was getting more frustrated by the minute, so I put the laptop to bed, resolving to attack it the following morning…
Microsoft Login Solved!
Having tried everything to solve this ridiculous situation, including the MS Authenticator App on her phone, which you can’t use if you’re not logged into it, even though she was logged into OneDrive and Outlook on the phone anyway… I scoured the net yet again and came across the weirdest of suggestions. I even tried the crappy official Microsoft Sign In Helper, but all that did was tell me that her email address didn’t flag any problems and shed no light on all the other stupid messages being thrown at me.
This involved opening up GPEDIT.msc (Win+r) and finding Computer Configuration>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Local Policies>Security Control>Accounts: Block Microsoft Accounts (Not Defined is the default value) and change the value to Disabled. This didn’t immediately solve the login problem, so I thought that there must be a relationship between changing the laptop from a local account to her Microsoft account, which is what I tried, by first setting up a local password and then a PIN, being careful to use both that she already uses on her PC and phone.
However, before you can set up a PIN, you need to establish a password, so I did both, and I was finally able to sign her in, but I needed to sign her into OneDrive separately, which doesn’t make sense at all.
Conclusion
This is a known problem, and all we can do is try to solve it ourselves because Microsoft’s own guides are about as useful as chocolate teapots. I’m now left with the impression that Microsoft wants all of you and will make sure that we jump through all the hoops to make it so.
This was very frustrating indeed and has left me with more questions than answers, which is usually the case when dealing with Windows.
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Hi Marc
I totally understand the nightmare with Microsoft. I have literally just spent months regaining access to my Microsoft account. I needed to enlist the services of our Consumer Affairs office here in Australia before they would respond with a Microsoft Escalation Manager – still took months though. But I finally have my Microsft account back and I only need it because I access Microsoft Flight Simulator on Steam via XBox.com with all my Microsoft plane purchases which needs your Microsoft account. Otherwise I would have just ditched the account and made another.
Moot point now but before reformatting and going full scorched earth did you try removing your wife’s credentials for all Microsoft software on her laptop (as well as checking the time and date settings as mismatches have been known to cause sync problems with Microsoft servers) ?
Cheers
Reg
Hi Reg
Months? That’s unforgiveable on Microsoft’s part. As mentioned in the article, the error messages are practically meaningless.
Yes, with MFS and all other XBox games, you need your account back for everything related to each game, for obvious reasons.
Yes, I went to Credentials Manager in Windows and removed everything, but it made no difference and the Parental Control pop-up was nauseating, so I went for the nuclear option, since all her data was backed up anyway.
It’s also a new laptop so all dates were correct.
Cheers
Marc
I, too, have had issues from time to time, and when all else fails, I restore a most-recent backup created using EaseUS ToDo-Backup. Microsoft’s backup application is worthless, but I’ve not had issues restoring from a ToDoBU using their “emergency disk” to start up my PC for the process. I generally keep about 4 full backups on each of two NAS units. I guess you could say, I’m a bit OCD when it comes to backing up my data.
I have yet to find anyone in Microsoft who can explain to me why they think a 5-digit pin number is more secure than a 17 character password that combines letters, numbers, upper and lower case and special characters.
I used to brag about M$ and always laughed to nay sayers. Not anymore. They have abandoned the user and IF you actually get to talk to a person, they only tell you to reinstall and like in this situation it didn’t’ fix the issue. No one there knows their own product or how it works.
This is becoming the standard of the industry. I have taught Customer service more often than they have helped me. Now it is common for chat rooms to have nothing but a bunch of blithering idiots that are so thin skinned that you can’t hold a simple conversation.