Password not working

Question

Password not working

Jack Haseldine 0

Recently, the ‘password’ method to log I has been saying the password is incorrect, even when I reset it five seconds ago to something short and easy to remember. This happens across all devices and web browsers - and, most problematically, on my home pc that I can no longer login to, since the password is the only method available. (Hello/PIN requires password to set up.) I do not have any kind of password rotation setting applied, and even if I did that shouldn’t invalidate new passwords the moment they’re set.

Any help to get passwords working as a sign-in method again would be appreciated.

0 comments

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Jack Haseldine 0

For future reference; kludged together a workaround when microsoft support couldn't help, by using the fact I have two disk drives.

Took out my SSD, installed windows with a new account on my old storage drive (RIP to all the games on there), plugged SSD back in, dragged everything in my original User folder over to the new one in a zip file, unplugged HDD, reinstalled windows on SSD and was able to set a local password, plugged HDD back in, got the files back over. It wasn't perfect, and there's almost certainly stuff I missed, but it worked.

Vikki-T 8,490 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-01T13:08:07.67+00:00

Hi Jack Haseldine,

Thank you for sharing the update and explaining the workaround in detail. I can understand how frustrating and exhausting it must have been to reinstall Windows multiple times, move files between drives, and rebuild your setup, especially when some items were still missed.

I’m glad you managed to recover most of your files and get the device working again, even though it was not an ideal solution. As you noted, this is a complex workaround with a risk of data loss, so others should proceed carefully and make sure they have a full backup first.

I appreciate you documenting your experience for anyone who may encounter a similar issue.

Answer 2

Vikki-T 8,490 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Jack Haseldine,

I understand how frustrating this must be, especially when the newly changed password is rejected across multiple devices and you can no longer sign in to your home PC.

To narrow this down, could you please confirm:

Does the Windows sign-in screen show your Microsoft account email address, or only a local username?
Can you sign in to the same account at Microsoft account using the new password?
What is the exact error shown when you enter the password on the PC?

In the meantime, please try the following:

On the Windows sign-in screen, make sure the PC is connected to the Internet using the network icon in the lower-right corner.
Select Sign-in options, choose the password icon, and make sure you are entering the password rather than a PIN.
Check the keyboard language, Caps Lock, and Num Lock. You can also use the on-screen keyboard from the Accessibility menu to rule out a keyboard input issue.
If this is a Microsoft account, select I forgot my password on the sign-in screen and complete the reset there, making sure the email address shown is the same account you are resetting.
If the password is also rejected on the Microsoft account website, try the Microsoft account Sign-in Helper.

Please avoid repeatedly changing the password for now, as confirming which account is being used and whether the new password works online will help identify the correct next step. While my initial response may not fully resolve the issue, I truly appreciate your cooperation as we work together toward identifying the most effective solution. Thank you so much for your understanding.

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.

Jack Haseldine 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T12:22:20.28+00:00
Does the Windows sign-in screen show your Microsoft account email address, or only a local username?

It shows the real name and profile picture associated with my Microsoft account, not the local username the account originally had.

Can you sign in to the same account at Microsoft accountusing the new password?

I can’t, the error given there is “You've tried to sign in too many times with an incorrect account or password.”

What is the exact error shown when you enter the password on the PC?

”That password is incorrect. Make sure you’re using the password for your Microsoft account. If you can’t remember your password, you can reset it from the lock screen or at account.live/password/reset.”

On the Windows sign-in screen, make sure the PC is connected to the Internet using the network icon in the lower-right corner.

It is.

Select Sign-in options, choose the password icon, and make sure you are entering the password rather than a PIN.

Selecting the not-password option prompts me to enter my password to set up Windows Hello, there is no PIN option.

Check the keyboard language, Caps Lock, and Num Lock. You can also use the on-screen keyboard from the Accessibility menu to rule out a keyboard input issue.

Done, and ruled out.

If this is a Microsoft account, select I forgot my password on the sign-in screen and complete the reset there, making sure the email address shown is the same account you are resetting.

I did that several times last night, as mentioned. The new passwords all still didn’t work.

If the password is also rejected on the Microsoft account website, try the Microsoft account Sign-in Helper.

-Restart device

Done

-Make sure connected to internet

Done, as above

-Caps Lock off and check password with eye button

Done

-Try previous password

Done multiple times last night

-Try another account

There isn’t one

-Try alternate sign-in options

As mentioned above, the only alternate requires a password to set up

Please avoid repeatedly changing the password for now, as confirming which account is being used and whether the new password works online will help identify the correct next step.

I did that last night, but I’ll avoid changing it more.
Jack Haseldine 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T14:05:27.6266667+00:00

Also, in case it helps, I still have the Authenticator active on my phone, and can login to my account in browsers using that - which is how I’m posting these - but there doesn’t seem to be a way to use that for my PC account.
Vikki-T 8,490 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-29T12:58:53.2066667+00:00

Hi Jack Haseldine,

Thank you for confirming those details and for trying all the suggested steps. I understand how frustrating this is, especially since the new password works in your browser but is still rejected only on the PC.

The message“You’ve tried to sign in too many times with an incorrect account or password” indicates that the repeated sign-in attempts are currently being blocked. For now, please avoid resetting the password again or making repeated attempts from the PC.

Since Microsoft Authenticator is active and you can still access the account online, please use the https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2214157 to check whether it detects an account or sign-in issue.

If the Sign-in Helper does not resolve it, you can also contact Microsoft Support, enter the sign-in issue, select Get Help, and then choose Contact Support if that option is presented.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, cannot access account systems or remove sign-in restrictions from here. I can only provide general troubleshooting guidance based on the information shared.
Thank you so much for your cooperation.
Jack Haseldine 0 Reputation points

2026-07-29T16:21:32.07+00:00

For reference, the new password doesn’t work in browsers. Browsers have the login with Authenticator option while my pc doesn’t, is all.

The Sign-in helper didn’t help. I did contact support, and was told I just needed to wait 24 hours with no password login attempts and it should resolve itself - which is frustrating but if it works then it’s better than many other options.

and fair enough about this being a user-to-user platform.
Vikki-T 8,490 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-30T09:15:50.6933333+00:00

Hi Jack Haseldine,

Thank you for the update. I understand how frustrating it is that the new password still does not work in Windows, even though you can access the account in a browser using Microsoft Authenticator.

Since Microsoft Support advised you not to make any password sign-in attempts for 24 hours, it would be best to follow that guidance and avoid testing the password during that period. Hopefully, the password sign-in will work again afterward.

Thank you for your patience, and please feel free to let me know how it goes.
Jack Haseldine 0 Reputation points

2026-07-30T15:30:56.3766667+00:00

Tried what they said, it didn’t work. Next Windows support person tood me it was an outlook account issue and seemed to just point me at outlook support, which as far as I can tell is just bots.

currently abusing the fact I have two disk drives to get things done in a nasty kludge that hopefully works - install windows on hard disk drive, use admin account there to get files from ssd, reinstall windows on ssd over the messed up account, move files back, turn hard disk drive back into extra storage. It’s a very tedious pain in the ass but I think it should work.
Vikki-T 8,490 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-31T08:07:48.39+00:00

Hi Jack Haseldine,

Thank you for the update. I’m sorry to hear that Windows Support was unable to resolve the sign-in issue and that you were redirected to an automated Outlook support channel. I understand how frustrating it must be to go through all of this just to regain access to your files.

Your workaround may allow you to recover the files, but reinstalling Windows and moving data between drives can carry a risk of accidental data loss. Before proceeding, I strongly recommend backing up any accessible important files to an external drive and carefully verifying which drive and partition you are selecting during the installation.

Unfortunately, as this is a user-to-user support forum, we cannot access the account or investigate the affected Windows profile from here.

I’m sorry that a clean installation may be the most practical option left in this situation. Please take extra care to confirm that your important files have been copied successfully before formatting or reinstalling Windows on the SSD.
Jack Haseldine 0 Reputation points

2026-07-31T08:52:34.9733333+00:00

I used my other internal drive as an ersatz external drive for backup purposes like I mentioned, sort of, and managed to keep most of it intact by disconnecting it while the installation happened, since I have an SSD and a HDD. Didn't have any other drives to back up to. But yeah, it's annoying to have to re-setup everything, but it's as handled as it's gonna get now. And the microsoft account is just passwordless now because the password didn't work anyway so why bother.

Hopefully if anyone else comes along hoping for an answer to a similar problem, they have an easier time of it than I did, and can just wait it out or get more effective help from official support channels, because I do not recommend the multiple days long tedious process of juggling windows installs and files between disk drives.