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I can't login to my Surface Book, I have forgotten my security questions answers.

Anonymous
2024-07-31T10:57:11+00:00

Unfortunately I am not able to reset the security questions linked to my account, all I can find online are linked to work or school account while this is a personal account. How can i access my laptop without resetting it, it has all the pictures saved. The device is linked to my account, is there any other way of resetting it?

Surface | Surface Laptop | Safety and security

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-08-01T08:32:00+00:00

    Hello JLL_79,

    Welcome to Microsoft Community.

    Typically, customers can log into their computer devices using two accounts, one with Microsoft account and the other with a local account.

    But I notice you mention "security questions answers" here, and this is usually for local accounts. So now the situation is that you forgot the password for your local account and forgot the corresponding security answer, causing you to be unable to log in to your Surface?

    ​

    If your current need is to retrieve these images or other important data, I noticed that in your problem description, you mentioned "this device is linked to my account", then you are clearly referring to a Microsoft account here, but I am not sure if you have uploaded these images to OneDrive.

    ​OneDrive is a Microsoft account based cloud service, if you have previously uploaded these images to OneDrive, then on any device, open the OneDrive home page, you can very easily identify these images and download them to the local save:

    Download files and folders from OneDrive or SharePoint - Microsoft Support

    ​However, if you've never done this and don't have any other accounts available for the device at this point, unfortunately, you may have to restore the Surface to factory Settings with the help of the Surface recovery drive:

    Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface - Microsoft Support

    ​Maybe you already know how to reset your Surface with WinRE, but you need to know that resetting your Surface through this step still requires you to enter your account password.

    ​But if you're looking for answers to security questions about resetting accounts, you can turn the question around and ask yourself, if such a solution exists, what's the point of having a security question? The account password and the answer to the security question are like the lock on a box, the essence of which is to protect the contents of the box, but if there is any clever means to bypass the lock, it is not equal to anyone can open the locked box at will.

    Best Regards,

    Mitchell | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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