I keep getting locked out of my account and forced to recover after only 1 login attempt

Question

I'll give the TLDR first: I've had to recover my account 4 times now. Each time I try to log in I enter my password one time, and it tells me that I've tried too many times with an incorrect password or account. I've tried to use a code sent to my phone number, but it won't allow that either.

This started about 2 months ago. I bought the Halo MC collection on Steam (on my PC). I was asked to sign in to my Xbox account, but I couldn't remember that specific password, so I reset it. I got logged in and everything was linked. The next day I went to use my Xbox, I was required to sign in due to the password change, I wrote the new password down to be sure I got it right. I typed it out slowly and carefully. I immediately got the error message saying I had attempted to log in with an incorrect password or account. Tried signing in on my laptop and was faced with the same error. Recovered my account and got signed in.

I tried to use my PC again and it said I needed to sign in due to password change when I recovered my account. I put it my password and immediately get the same error. I contacted support and they told me something about having devices with saved passwords and how sometimes they rapidly send attempts with the incorrect password and that might be the issue. So, I deleted all saved passwords from all my devices. They also had me send a form to the security team because they claimed they would remove all saved devices on their end. I was told by security that's not something they do.

A few weeks later I experienced the same issue and was able to recover. Then yesterday I was asked to sign in to my email on my phone after an update. I have an iPhone (yes, I know ew gross iPhone) and use the mail app since my work email uses the Outlook app and I didn't want to have to swap back and forth. I was able to use a code sent to my phone to log in. 5 minutes later it asks me to log in again but this time it won't let me use the code. I try my password and I'm met with the same message. I just finished recovering my account and speaking to someone in customer service.

They want me to download a VPN and use that every time I try to log in on my phone. Where I'm struggling to understand is I have the error on ALL my devices, not just my phone. I use different networks, different browsers, and different devices. All of them experience this issue. How do I fix this? I really don't want to have to recover my account every couple weeks.

I should also add I added my Microsoft account to the Authenticator app on my phone this morning after I recovered my account, but I don't know if I really did anything useful.

Answer 1

Hi Kaden

This usually isn’t a wrong password issue. What’s happening is your account is being temporarily rate‑limited by Microsoft’s security system, so password sign‑in gets blocked even if it’s correct.

This is typically triggered by:

• repeated sign‑in attempts (from apps/devices or possibly other login attempts), or
• something still using an old saved password (phone mail app, Xbox, Outlook, etc.)

Once triggered, every new attempt, even with the correct password, extends the lockout, which is why it keeps looping after recovery.

What you can try next:

1. Reset your password once, then stop all sign‑in attempts for 24-48 hours.
2. Remove your Microsoft account from apps that may retry automatically (especially iPhone Mail), then wait before re‑adding.
3. After it stabilizes, use Microsoft Authenticator/passwordless sign‑in to avoid the password block entirely.
4. Check your recent activity for unknown attempts, if there are many, your account may be getting targeted.

Using a VPN is not required here and can sometimes make it worse due to new/unusual sign‑in locations.

If the issue keeps returning after doing the above, it’s likely ongoing background login attempts (app or external), not something you’re typing wrong.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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.