Microsoft Account Devices service timeout prevents Windows device registration and Family Safety device connection

Question

Hello,

I believe I have encountered a backend issue affecting the Microsoft Account Devices service.

The issue prevents my child's Windows 11 device from being associated with the Microsoft account and therefore Microsoft Family Safety cannot connect the device.

Symptoms

• Family Safety always shows "Connect device" for my child's account.
• Following the official instructions creates an endless loop:
  • Windows Settings
    • Accounts
      • Family & other users
        • Child account already present
          • Family Safety still requests "Connect device".
          • The page

https://account.microsoft.com/devices

never loads.

It only displays loading skeleton placeholders indefinitely.

Browser diagnostics

Opening Developer Tools shows:

• Axios timeout after 30000 ms
• Requests to the Devices service never complete
• The page never receives the device list.

This happens in:

• Microsoft Edge
• Google Chrome

Environment

• Windows 11 fully updated
• Personal Microsoft accounts (not Entra ID / Azure AD)
• Microsoft Family Safety
• Home network
• No proxy
• No VPN

Troubleshooting already performed

I recreated everything from scratch.

• Created a brand new Microsoft parent account.
• Created a brand new Microsoft Family.
• Created a brand new Microsoft child account.
• Deleted every previous Windows profile.
• Created a completely new Windows standard account for the child.
• Signed into Windows successfully with the child Microsoft account.
• Verified the account is a Microsoft account.
• Verified the child belongs to the Family group.
• Tested on multiple PCs.
• Tested on multiple browsers.
• Tested with different Microsoft accounts.

The result is always identical.

Additional evidence

Running

shows a normal consumer Microsoft account.

The issue appears unrelated to Windows installation or local configuration.

Why I believe this is a backend issue

Several users reported the exact same behaviour after clean Windows installations.

Symptoms match exactly:

• Devices never appear in Microsoft Account.
• Family Safety cannot associate the device.
• Local Windows configuration is correct.
• Different Microsoft accounts behave differently.
• Microsoft support reportedly acknowledged a backend issue affecting the Devices service.

My browser additionally reports repeated timeout errors while loading the Devices page.

Request

Could you please escalate this issue to the Microsoft Account / Devices backend engineering team?

It appears the device registration service associated with my Microsoft account is not responding correctly, preventing both the Devices page and Microsoft Family Safety from functioning.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Marco De Stabile,

While the behavior you've described may indicate an issue with device registration or account synchronization, I would recommend waiting a few days before concluding that this is a backend service issue, as temporary service disruptions can occasionally affect device registration and Family Safety connectivity.

In the meantime, I'd suggest performing a few additional checks to help rule out any network-related factors:

• Test the affected Microsoft account from a completely different network, such as a mobile hotspot.
• If possible, test from another ISP or physical location.
• Temporarily disable any third-party security software, web filtering, parental control software, or network inspection tools.
• Flush the DNS cache and restart both the device and router.

Since the troubleshooting performed so far appears to have been within the same home network environment, a network-related issue cannot be completely ruled out. Timeouts can sometimes be caused by DNS, routing, filtering, or connectivity issues between the client and the service.

If the issue persists after several days and can be reproduced from a different network, please feel free to let me know.