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Trying to activate Microsoft Learn Sandbox while logged in with my personal Microsoft Account results in the following prompt:
You are currently signed in as ******@outlook.com, however, ******@hotmail.com was invited. Do you want to switch to ******@hotmail.com?
I can select "Cancel" which results in: "No action needed you may close the window."
Or I can select "Switch Accounts" resulting in the error: "Invitation redemption failed - An error has occurred. Please retry again shortly."
I have tried logging in with both ******@outlook.com and ******@hotmail.com, but the results are the same.
When logging in the outlook.com address it says I'm logged in with the oulook.com address. The same is true when logging in with the hotmail.com address, nevertheless - when clicking "Activate sandbox" > "Review permissions" I still get the exact same error message.
I suspect the issue is related to the fact that this account is one and the same. Originally I created it with the hotmail.com-address, but after Microsoft opened up for aliases I added the outlook.com-address which has served as my main/primary/logon name/address.
I tried linking them, but, obviously, I receive a notification stating the account is already linked.
Also, everything above was done/tested while in incognito mode, both in Firefox and Chrome.
Screenshot borrowed from another, similar, question:
https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/aaa51bf5-b7d2-4564-969f-cc96012532bc?platform=QnA
Error message and data:
Invitation redemption failed
An error has occurred. Please retry again shortly.
RequestId: 75deda3f-f4e4-48f4-8441-0ab507c61685
Correlation Id:34e38e76-1153-44b2-985e-54a16c0e3f59
Timestamp:2023-10-10 10:17:07Z
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Hi Morten,
I understand that you've already attempted various troubleshooting steps, such as testing different web browsers and clearing the cache. To further pinpoint the issue, please try the following suggestions.
1.Usually, returning to the unit page and accepting the invitation again, as instructed in the doc, will resolve the error "Invitation redemption failed."
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/support/troubleshooting
If the issue persists, please contact us, and we'll be glad to assist you further.
I already tried 1 & 2, and I'm fairly confident I don't have the possibility to merge "the two accounts" - mainly because it isn't two accounts. It's one account with 2 different aliases. However if you could instruct me on the how-to I could check and verify. I don't see any options to merge anywhere on the profile/settings page though.
With that being said, I may have circumvented the problem by changing my primary email address back to the original @hotmail.com-address. When I attempted to start the sandbox after this change I was indeed able to review and accept/confirm the permissions. I immediately changed my primary smtp back to @outlook.com in the hope that the permissions prompt was a one-time thing.
I cannot confirm it is working yet because what happened next is the process of starting the sandbox went in some kind of self-repeating loop and started/stopped sandboxes until I eventually reached the "4 sandboxes per day" limit. I'll try again later today or tomorrow after 24 hours have passed.
Even if I did get it to work and the permissions prompt indeed is a one-time thing, it's obviously a problem with accounts who have changed their primary smtp. Therefore this is, at best, a workaround - not a solution.
Okay so that didn't work. The permissions I granted looks to be OK, but I'm still unable to activate sandbox because I'm "logged in with another account". Now I receive this error when trying to activate sandbox:
A different sandbox is already active
You've already activated a sandbox with the account ******@hotmail.com, but you are signed in as ******@outlook.com. You may either:
Sign in using ******@hotmail.com to access your current sandbox.
Request a sandbox using the currently signed-in account ******@outlook.com. This will delete the sandbox associated with ******@hotmail.com.
I tried both suggested options, but I'm not getting anywhere. Logging in with the "correct" address makes no difference as it's the same account, and when trying to activate sandbox to the currently logged in address the process just loops until I reach the limit. "Deactivating sandbox, verifying permissions, creating sandbox, resource groups, etc, deactivating sandbox...".
Looks like my only option is to change my primary smtp back to "hotmail.com" and keep it. Which is not a solution. The problem seems to be, as far as I can tell, that learn.microsoft.com don't understand that outlook.com is an alias for hotmail.com and treats it as two different accounts when in fact it isn't. I assume there's no hope that Microsoft could address this...
Hi Morten,
I understand that you've already made efforts to resolve the problem by experimenting with different web browsers, clearing your cache and reverting to your primary email address. In order to narrow down the issue, I recommend trying the following:
Here are the steps to verify whether your two profiles have been merged:
If the issue persists, please contact us and we'll be glad to assist you.
Hi Morten,
I understand that you've already made efforts to resolve the problem by experimenting with different web browsers, clearing your cache and reverting to your primary email address. In order to narrow down the issue, I recommend trying the following:
Here are the steps to verify whether your two profiles have been merged:
If the issue persists, please contact us and we'll be glad to assist you.
Confirmed - I have no linked accounts, and as previously mentioned I am unable to link these "two" accounts. They are not two accounts, both addresses belongs to my one and only Microsoft Account. The only thing that will circumvent the problem is to revert back to my original smtp address as primary and keep it. Due to limits on how often I can change my primary smtp I am unable to confirm this claim 100%, but I am certain this is the case. However, also as previously stated, this is not a solution - it's a workaround.
Learn.microsoft.com should be able to identify my Microsoft Account regardless of what alias I use to sign in, and from there spin up and down sandboxes as requested. But this is obviously not the case - hence the problem. In my research I've seen many people struggle with the same and it boggles my mind Microsoft even have this issue in the first place. It's basically equivalent to logging in to outlook.live.com and NOT seeing your emails because they were sent to your hotmail.com address and you logged in with your outlook.com-ALIAS...
This terrible issue is now keeping me from continue my learning path until I once again can change my primary smtp next week. From there I am, in effect, forced to use a primary address I don't want (to use). Maybe if the system were based on user ID's rather than aliases...
Steps to recreate:
1: Create a Microsoft Account (MSA)
2: Log in to learn.microsoft.com, start a learning path and spin up a sandbox
3: Add a new alias to your MSA and set it as primary
4: Continue the learning path, try to spin up a new sandbox and watch it all fall apart.
5: Optional: Waste your time trying different browsers, incognito, merging/linking accounts, etc etc...
Apologize for the delay we are still checking this internally; we will get back to you soon.
Morten,
Much appreciate your patience!
While we are still working with our MS learn team internally, and the team is actively investigating; it looks like you are able to get to the sandbox but there is an account mismatch.
We request you to retry the steps and let us know if you are still seeing this issue.
Thanks for your cooperation!
Morten,
If you have set an Outlook.com alias on your Hotmail account, you might encounter account mismatch errors, which is a bug. Our Learn team is actively working on the fix. As a workaround, you may sign in with a separate account and link to your previous account by navigating to profile settings page.
Thanks for the update and for acknowledging it’s a bug. Any ETA or estimate for a permanent fix?
Morten,
We do not have an ETA to share yet, as soon as we have an update, we will share it here.
Hi Morten,
Much appreciate your patience!
The issue is fixed now and live in production. Tested with legacy Hotmail account that has a primary outlook alias.
Thank you for helping us in improving Microsoft.
We hope that the information provided has been helpful to you! If so, please accept the answer by clicking the Accept Answer on the post.
Hi,
Thank you. I don't know exactly when but this has been working fine for me for at least 3/4 weeks now. Not sure if this means I somehow bypassed the issue with all of my fiddling or if you implemented the fix in production a while ago. Nevertheless, I can spin up sandboxes without any issues now so I'm happy.
Cheers