What is my Edge PIN

Luke LaChance 1

I am trying to access my passwords from the list within Edge and it is asking for a PIN. I do not know it.

1 answer

Yu Zhou-MSFT 12,951 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2020-09-24T02:58:54.757+00:00

Do you mean you want to see the saved passwords in Edge Profiles/ Passwords like below? If so, I think it is asking for the Windows Hello PIN which is used for signing in to Windows. It's not Edge's PIN. You can find the PIN setting in Start >Settings >Accounts >Sign-in options >Windows Hello PIN.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Regards,
Yu Zhou
Please sign in to rate this answer.

1 person found this answer helpful.
Kevin Freels 1 Reputation point

2023-06-14T02:17:59.06+00:00

I managed to get thrown off by this today. It's not the first time. And I've assisted a dozen people on various forums who have also run into the problem but it still threw me for a loop momentarily. I think I know how MS can make this a lot easier.

I'm on a laptop with both a home and work account and Windows uses my Home account. I was working in Edge which is always logged into my work account. (I leave Edge Beta connected to my home account so I don't have to bounce back and forth.)

I was prompted that it was time to change my password for the work account, so I clicked the link in the prompt and a new tab opened to change my password. I did so and closed the tab. Then I noticed that the browser wasn't logged into an account any longer. I was expecting this so I clicked my picture for the browser login and entered the new password.

I was prompted for an MS Authenticator number, picked up my phone and saw the number, entered it. All good.

Then I was prompted for my PIN. My first thought was "I don't have a PIN for my work account". I had changed the password on my work account and Edge is logging into my work account. It shouldn't matter if I'm on my machine or a 3rd party machine as I've already provided new credentials and my authenticator app to edge. All I've changed is my work account password.

I am so sick of entering passwords that it's not even funny, so I clicked a link on the password window that gave me the option of Face ID which is what I normally use.
It accepted and looked like it was going to go back the the page I was on before, but instead it relaunched the prompt for the password.

I entered it again, did the Face ID and authenticator app again, and again was asked for a PIN. I selected the authenticator app, got the request, got the number off my phone app, entered it, the window disappeared, then again popped up the request for PIN.

Not thinking about it, I enetered the PIN from my work machine and was run through the whole process yet again.

I was just about to get frustrated when I realized that it was asking for my local machine PIN. I assume that the use of Face ID triggers the PIN request since Face ID is provided by Windows on the local machine. Giving the local machine PIN likely allows the account in the OS to update the password for the work account on the local machine's Face ID. I just hadn't thought it all the way through. Changing the password on my work account shouldn't require this much thought. lol

I was already logged into the machine and in the same browser window I used to change my work password. When I entered the new work account password into Edge and then verified with the Authenticator app, it should not have needed local machine authorization to connect edge to my work account. If I had closed the browser or rebooted between changing the password and launching edge, I could maybe see it. But if I'm already logged into the machine, clicked a prompt by the browser to change my work account password then did so, then entered it into the same instance of Edge on my work profile after doing so, then authenticated through the app, that should be enough.

It's not really a huge ordeal but for the fact that I didn't initially think about my local machine PIN when I was prompted for a PIN. I didn't connect the dots.

I think the biggest part of the confusion is because the request for a PIN itself didn't indicate that it was asking for the local machine's PIN. It simply said "Please enter your PIN" or something like that and there was a link to choose another form of authentication where Face ID was available.

It all just seems rather sloppy. As I said, the browser had already been authenticated with the new password and Authenticator app. I am who I am supposed to be. From there, all should work fine since I was logged in before I made the change.

At the very least, if this behaviour can't be changed, it would be nice to include some additional text on the PIN request stating something like "You are logging into a work account on a machine that is connected to a personal account. To use biometrics you must enter this machine's PIN."

I think this would clear up a lot of confusion.
Sign in to comment

Share via

What is my Edge PIN

1 answer