PC auto signs out in minutes, regardless of any settings. "Never" option not showing under, "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?"

Question

PC auto signs out in minutes, regardless of any settings. "Never" option not showing under, "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?"

Char-M 0

I have a seemingly unsolvable problem on my new PC:
Windows 11 signs me out of my account and onto the lockscreen within 5 minutes of inactivity. This happens regardless of any and all setting configurations I've tried.

Under Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options > under Additional Settings, it has a setting saying, "If you've been away when should Windows require you to sign in again?". In the drop down menu, it gives options for "Every Time, 1, 3, 5, or 15" minutes. There should be a "Never" option, but there is not. Below this section, there is text saying, "security policies on this pc are preventing some options from being shown".

For the life of me i can not find what settings to change to fix this. I have probably spend hours on Google, Microsoft forums, and Reddit, looking for answers and finding none that worked for my case. I also adjusted and changed all power settings -including advanced power settings-, account settings, and even tried some Registry edits in attempting to fix this. Specifically, **in the Registry, I changed "DelayLockInterval" to 1200 seconds (20 min), yet that changed nothing. Still logs off after 5min of inactivity. I also went into the Local Group Policy Editor and all settings are "Not Configured", so i assume there are no no limitations there. Nothing works.

Currently, I chose the longest option of "15 minutes" but even that does not work. If i walk away from my PC or are just inactive on it, after exactly 5 minutes the screen turns off, it takes 5 seconds to wake, and i have to type my password to sign in again.
This is obviously frustrating, but also insane considering the high spec PC that this is. I have a high spec PC and I'm fairly tech-literate and good a trouble shooting.

I'm tempted to just give up and do a Windows Reset, but i don't want to be drastic or have to set up my whole PC again if i don't need to.

So any advise or help would be appreciated. Thank you.

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4 answers

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Answer 1

Chen1018 13,870 Independent Advisor

Hi there,

I'm here to help.

Please try these suggestion:

Run gpedit.msc, go to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Video and Display Settings → Check if “Turn off the display (plugged in)” or “Screen saver timeout” is enforcing the 5 min limit.
Also check: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Sleep Settings → Just to make sure it's not silently going to sleep or hybrid sleep.
Open Registry Editor again and double-check: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System → If there's a key called InactivityTimeoutSecs, delete it or set it to 0.
Try running rsop.msc to view Resultant Set of Policy it'll show what policies are being enforced and from where.

And yeah, sadly if “Some settings are managed by your organization” is still showing and it’s not a work PC, sometimes only a fresh local account or a clean reset will fully unhook it.

Warm Regards,

Cherrelyn

Char-M 0 Reputation points

2025-08-07T00:23:02.6566667+00:00

Thank you for the advise.

All the settings in gpedit.msc are all "Not Configured". Should i change the ones you mentioned to Disabled or leave them as Not Configured?

Computer Configurations are all set to where they should be.

I set the InactivityTimeoutSecs to both 0 and 1200 and no changes occurred. Problem persists.

The rsop.msc section was new to me, but all levels are "Not Configured".

I feel like i exhausted my options and should maybe do a Reset at this point.

Answer 2

san 0

if it's managed by your organization then i don't think there will be any solution. but you can always simply put music or video in the background to keep it awake

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Answer 3

Chen1018 13,870 Independent Advisor

Hi Char- M,

Thanks for checking all that and yeah, since everything shows as Not Configured and the Registry tweak didn’t help either, you’ve pretty much covered all the usual suspects. If nothing is enforcing those settings and the lock still kicks in at 5 minutes no matter what, then sadly it might be one of those weird stuck policies that only clears out with a full Windows reset or setting up a clean local profile. At this point a reset might be the cleanest way forward if the issue is disrupting your work. Just be sure to back everything up first you’ve definitely earned a smooth, fresh setup after all that effort.

Warm regards,

Cherrelyn

Christopher Hurlburt 0 Reputation points

2025-08-09T03:46:23.95+00:00

Believe it or not, Windows Hello is responsible for that box being grayed out, and the only way to get it back is to delete the fingerprint or pin that you set up to access the device, and opt to use a password to login instead. When Windows Hello is active, Microsoft decided that you will be logged out after 5 minutes, and there is no way to change it. Which is infuriating. If I wanted a system designed by condescending engineers who think they alone should have the power to customize my system, I'd buy a Mac.
Char-M 0 Reputation points

2025-08-16T16:58:17.6233333+00:00

Hi, so i wanted to follow up on this issue and give some updates.

I did end up doing a Reset on this PC, hoping that would solve this issue. That was a whole messy process and i ended up booting from and installing from a USB drive that has the latest version of windows installed. So i have a functional version of windows now, back to a blank slate, however... It did not fully resolve this problem.

I currently only have options under, "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?" of "Never, Every Time, 1, 3, 5, or 15 minutes". I've been using the 15 minute option, which is fine and a definite improvement, but i still do not have the option of "When PC wakes form sleep", which is ideal and what i would really want.

So now my question is, is there any way to have that option, "When PC wakes form sleep", show up and available? I've tried everything, and even Resetting the PC did not work.

Answer 4

Char-M 0

Screenshot 2025-08-06 192211

Char-M 0 Reputation points

2025-08-06T23:27:02.43+00:00

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PC auto signs out in minutes, regardless of any settings. "Never" option not showing under, "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?"

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