Hotmail account blocked - SMS and Authenticator both succeed but password reset fails with "There's a temporary problem with the service"

Question

I have a personal Hotmail account which is linked to the account I have logged in under.

Hotmail account blocked - SMS and Authenticator both succeed but password reset fails with "There's a temporary problem with the service"

Microsoft required me to change my password. I entered my current password, then verified my identity by SMS and Microsoft Authenticator. Both verification methods succeed, but I always receive "There's a temporary problem with the service." After repeated attempts, Microsoft has now blocked the account due to multiple incorrect password attempts. I have no recovery path because the online system fails after successful verification. I need this escalated to the Microsoft Account team.

Answer 1

Hello J B

I understand how frustrating this situation must be, especially since both the SMS and Microsoft Authenticator verification steps are completing successfully.

Based on the information you provided, the issue does not appear to be related to identity verification itself. Instead, the password change process is failing with the message "There's a temporary problem with the service", and the account has subsequently become blocked after multiple attempts.

Since you have already completed the available verification methods and the failure occurs after successful verification, there are no additional user-side troubleshooting steps I can reliably recommend at this point.

I suggest contacting Microsoft Account Support directly so they can review the account status and available recovery options:

• Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support 
• Select the product or service you're having issue with.
• Click Get Home Support
• Type a brief description of your issue in the search box.
• Click Get Help and select Contact Support below. 
• Go to the Products and services tab and choose the appropriate product.
• On the Category tab, choose the appropriate category or an alternative option.
• Go to Confirm.
• Look for and select "Chat with a support agent in your web browser" (during business hours) if available. Explain your situation clearly.

Please kindly note that this is a public user-to-user forum, I do not have the ability, tools to unblock, recover accounts or bypass security. Only Microsoft’s official recovery process can restore access.

When contacting support, be sure to mention that:

• SMS verification succeeds.
• Microsoft Authenticator verification succeeds.
• The error appears only during the password reset/change process.
• The account was later blocked following repeated attempts.

This will help the support team focus on the password reset failure rather than the verification process itself.