MS Edge handling multiple profiles/M365 accounts BADLY

Question

Hi all,

Am I missing something totally obvious here or have Microsoft been totally obtuse in how they handle profiles in their own web browser?

Here's my setup:

• Windows 11 PC: My own work account signed-in to Windows (seems I can't sign-out from this either so being pushed down/enforced by GPO/Azure AD policy - no idea, no access)
• MS Edge: Multiple profiles, signed-in with the admin accounts I have for various customer tenants which I administer as their MSP

For love nor money, I cannot switch to a separate profile in the browser and have the M365 portal sign in with the account associated with that profile. It will REPEATEDLY default to the one signed-in to Windows itself and even if I logout, close the window, open a new one (under the correct, different profile) and login with the correct one, when I try to launch the Exchange Admin Centre (for example) I am presented with a page from my employer's tenant - not the customer one.

This is doing my head in. Microsoft have pushed this browser on us, it supports 365 accounts as seperate profiles and yet doesn't seem to support this basic functionality in a way that's simple and not incredibly time consuming.

Is there something I'm missing or has my company configured something in GPO (which I'd need to ask the question regarding, I have no access to confirm that personally) which is enforcing this and creating the issue for me?

Please help! Before I lose it entirely!

Answer 1

I've found a working solution, or at least a viable workaround for a single account that may work for multiple, that works on Windows 10

I recently swapped out my laptop for a new model and have been trying to duplicate working settings from the old one that allowed me to do this and couldn't work it out at first.

our usage case is that we have a standard AD account that is used to log into the local device and access standard M365 resources, and a separate admin account to administer our M365 tenant for the IT team. my standard account is used by default for most purposes but I've created a second Edge profile that will use my admin account to sign in and manage M365

In Windows Settings - Accounts - Email & accounts, click on add workplace or school account, follow the steps using the admin account, you should then have 2 entries for your standard account and the admin account

now, when you launch the browser with the second Edge profile and try to access and sign into M365 you should be give the option to use either the standard account or the secondary admin account, it should also save the last used account so next time you launch the browser it will remember the account you used.

hope that was clear

Answer 2

You can skip the "Pick an account" prompt and force the login with the current profile in Microsoft Edge. Do this by enabling the option "Automatically sign in to sites with your current work or school account".

This is a per profile setting in that can be found in: Settings > Profiles > Profile Preferences

Answer 3

Hi @Lewis Thomson

Do you mean for some sites Edge always switch to use the work account profile to sign in even if you're using another profile? If so, there might be that you configured to use Profile preferences for sites.

You can go to edge://settings/profiles/multiProfileSettings in Edge, turn off Automatic profile switching, remove all the sites under Profile preferences for sites. After that, you can test again. It should be able to use other profiles to log in sites.

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Regards,
Yu Zhou

Answer 4

Edge is still completely messed up with this "trying to be clever" with M365 accounts:

1. Logging onto laptop with personal Microsoft account
2. Primary Edge profile configured to use my own M365/Azure profile
3. Create another profile and sync using another client's M365 account/tenant
4. Attempt to open the other tenant's SharePoint home page and Edge says "You need permission to access this site"

It's clearly trying to logon with my own M365 email/tenant into the client tenant. No amount of tweaking of the profile settings allows me to open their SharePoint home page. Although I can open M365 admin.

I suspect the problem is that my own M365 username is a guest account in the client's Azure/SharePoint system but doesn't have access to the SharePoint home page.

Please stop trying to be clever with accounts. In a separate profile NO usernames/whatever from elsewhere should be used.

I'm about to go back to Chrome...

Answer 5

It doesn't matter what you choose in terms of Sync/Work or School SSO, it will ALWAYS favour the first account in Windows settings for SSO. Poorly written browser.