No longer able to log in to Azure Portal with personal account

Question

No longer able to log in to Azure Portal with personal account

Adam Hassan 5

I have a gmail email I've been using to log in to Azure Portal for a few years now. As of a few weeks ago, I can no longer log in. Going to aka.ms/mfasetup, it tells me "You can't sign in here with a personal account. Use your work or school account instead". This seems to be a new requirement, as I've never had issues signing in with a personal account before.

Device code login still works through the terminal and I am still able to log in through the mobile app. I was able to make a new entra user to log in using azcli, but I would prefer to regain access to my root account.

Did something change recently? Is there a way to fix this? Authenticator also has stopped working for login. I used to get alerts on my app when logging in to the Azure Portal, but now I only get alerts when logging in to my microsoft account. Before, authenticator worked for both my microsoft account and azure through my microsoft account. Now it seems to only work for the former, and I am stuck unable to log in.

UPN of the account is "<>_gmail.com#EXT#@<>gmail.onmicrosoft.com"
I have tried incognito mode and logging in on edge

Debashmita Saha 235 Reputation points

2026-03-18T11:46:35.97+00:00
Hi Adam,

Thanks for reaching out with this issue.

Azure Portal no longer supports personal accounts for login. You’ll need to use a work/school (Entra ID) account going forward. Microsoft has tightened Azure Portal access requirements. Personal Microsoft accounts (like Gmail sign-ins) are no longer supported for direct Azure Portal login. Azure now requires work or school accounts (i.e., Entra ID accounts) for portal access. This is why Authenticator stopped working for Azure Portal—it’s tied to your Microsoft personal account, not Entra ID.

Consider the following workarounds:

Go to account.microsoft.com and verify if your Gmail login is listed as a personal account. If so, it won’t work for Azure Portal anymore.

Create or use an Entra ID tenant (formerly Azure AD) - Sign in at Azure Portal using your Microsoft account (even if it’s personal, you can still create a tenant). In the left menu, search for Microsoft Entra ID. Select Create tenant. Choose Azure Active Directory > click Next. Fill in:

Organization name.

Initial domain name (something like mytenant.onmicrosoft.com).

Country/Region.

Click Review + Create > then Create.

This gives you a work/school identity that Azure Portal accepts. Add your Gmail as a guest user if needed, but the login must be through an Entra ID identity. In your new tenant, go to Users > New user.

Create a user account.

Assign yourself the Global Administrator role.

Save the account details.

By doing this, you will have added yourself as a user.

Authenticator Setup: Re-register your Entra ID account in Microsoft Authenticator by signing in with your new Entra ID account in Microsoft Authenticator. In the Azure Portal, go to Security > Authentication methods > MFA setup. Add Authenticator app as your primary method. Scan the QR code shown in the portal with the Authenticator app. This will restore MFA prompts for Azure Portal.

CLI & Mobile App Access: Since device code login and mobile app still work, you can continue managing resources there. But for full portal access, you’ll need to switch to an Entra ID account. If you had resources tied to your personal account, consider transferring ownership to your new Entra ID account. This is optional but recommended -

Go to Subscriptions > Access control (IAM).

Add your new Entra ID account as Owner or Contributor.

Gradually move management to your Entra ID identity.

Hope this was helpful!
Greg Lahens 0 Reputation points

2026-03-23T05:37:35.9333333+00:00

So what do we do with our existing accounts if Microsoft won't let me login to it but I'm still being charged for VM's and services on there? I'm also unable to login using a gmail account and have been trying to get support to help me on this issue for over a month!