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Son Locked out of new Laptop for 30 days! Thanks Microsoft!

Technerd108

Technerd108

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 24, 2021
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My son had an old gaming machine and it was starting to die so I bought him a new one. I was able to get a great deal on an HP Victus and my son was able to transfer all his files all was good. He did an update and when he tried to log back in he could not enter his pin or password. So we followed the prompts to get him back in and we had to verify his identity. We had an old phone number on the recovery account that no longer existed so we updated that. Well that apparently made a change that has to be updated to Microsoft servers and can take 30 days. I was thinking no way this can be true. The next day I got an email that congratulated me that our account was verified. I was able to log into my sons Microsoft account. I thought great we were good to go.

No we weren't! Got the same error as before. I was thinking something must be amiss here. I call Microsoft to get support. Too bad for me I was not going to be able to talk to anyone and was directed to the MS website. So I went to MS website and try to find support which sends me in useless answer loops that never answer anything. I finally get to chat and think okay they will guide me. They basically say that I have to wait 30 days?? I explain we have brand new machine and a windows update initialized and rebooted my sons device while he was using it. Then when he rebooted he could not enter his pin and explained the rest of it and they said 30 days!!

I asked if I could speak with a supervisor and finally got to one who told me that although my son's account has successfully been updated the Microsoft server needs to be updated so it can push out the new information to the PC. I said are you kidding me?? My son is in school and is locked out of his computer through no fault of his own and you are telling me after we took the steps that Microsoft asked him to do and he did successfully and yet he still has to wait 30days?? Yes this is the policy for all users(I bet Bill Gates doesn't abide by this rule!!)

I have never had this issue happen in all the many years I have been using Windows and was extremely frustrating. I know stuff happens but this is crazy. Locking a customer out of their machine without any action of their own for 30 days is insane to me. Has anyone else experienced this?? How did you get a resolution? Did you have to wait the 30 days??

My son is still locked out so any experience with this issue and any work arounds would be greatly appreciated.

I have always been a multi platform type of guy but this is seriously pushing me away from Windows..
 
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Moral of the story:
On any new PC, create a standalone admin user (preferably an offline account). Then add other users as standard users. This way, if there are any issues with those users, the admin user can still login to do troubleshootings.

This is not Windows' fault (well, partially if it's Windows 11 since Microsoft is enforcing online account for the first account). It's the security of Microsoft account. Same thing with iCloud. Forgot your password or lose your 2ndary authenticator, and you're in for pain.

I would just create an offline user and let your son use the PC with that new username.

I only had one issue with Microsoft account log-ins, but this is long time ago before authenticators existed. Nowadays, I have more problems with iCloud accounts (Apple really assumes that you have at least two Apple devices).
 
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Thats ridiculous. Thirty days is a very long time, what if you’d kept some time sensitive business info on there? Unacceptable.
 
In googling the issue, I found this on the MS site

On one hand, it actually makes sense and basically its there to protect from someone trying to steal your account. That is they start notifying the old phone number of the change. I agree 30 days is too long, but I once had my playstation account hacked and stolen. I was given .05 seconds to try to prevent it. It took an incredibly long time time fix it. I wished I had more time in that situation.

Why is my Microsoft account security info change still pending?

Applies to: Microsoft Account

When you remove all your old security info and replace it with something new, your Microsoft account is restricted for 30 days. During that time, we'll send notifications to the phone number or email address that's being removed, in case an attacker is attempting to remove your information. We can't expedite this process.

If you didn't make the security changes, or you changed your mind:

Go to Protect your account and sign in.

At the security info change is still pending, select If you didn't request this, let us know.

Or, you changed your mind and want to keep your existing security info, select Cancel this request.

What you can do while changes are pending

If you made the security info changes:

After 30 days, the security information you chose to remove will be deleted.

During this 30-day period, you can still access most Microsoft services, but you won't be able to do things that require a security code, like changing your password, email addresses or manage parental controls online.

You can view, change, or add billing information, and make purchases.


If you have two-step verification enabled:

You won't be able to sign in to your account unless you have the Microsoft

Authenticator app and had previously set it up on this account, or you have access to your old security information. This includes not being able to sign in to other Microsoft services such as Outlook.com or OneDrive.
Click to expand...

As other's stated you really need a local admin account, just for these sort of situations. Regardless of the platform, I always had an admin account handy in case my personal account became corrupted and/or locked out

If you have the old computer handy, can you just use the recovery partition and reset the computer to factory fresh?
 
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My son has his computer under my account and I am the Administrator. It would not let me authenticate either but I did not make my own account on his PC. I think that is part of the problem that he is not admin.
 
This is why I refuse to use cloud accounts for anything on my machines. Local only.
 
Technerd108 said:
My son has his computer under my account and I am the Administrator. It would not let me authenticate either but I did not make my own account on his PC. I think that is part of the problem that he is not admin.
Click to expand...
Wait, how can it not allow you, the admin account? Is this new on Windows PCs, like those T2 secured Apple macs? I never heard of this. If one account is locked, especially if it's not an admin account, there's no reason to lockout the other accounts. Makes no sense....
 
ian87w said:
Wait, how can it not allow you, the admin account? Is this new on Windows PCs, like those T2 secured Apple macs? I never heard of this. If one account is locked, especially if it's not an admin account, there's no reason to lockout the other accounts. Makes no sense....
Click to expand...
I have no idea. There is no way for me to enter an admin password as I would have done so. There is only a log in screen then he puts his password and as soon as he does that it goes to another screen and we get the error that keeps him locked out.
 
Technerd108 said:
I have no idea. There is no way for me to enter an admin password as I would have done so. There is only a log in screen then he puts his password and as soon as he does that it goes to another screen and we get the error that keeps him locked out.
Click to expand...
I'm more confused.
In Windows, if you did have a separate admin account, it should be listed at the bottom left on the login screen. If there's no other users listed, then there's only one account in that machine, which is your son's.
 
ian87w said:
I'm more confused.
In Windows, if you did have a separate admin account, it should be listed at the bottom left on the login screen. If there's no other users listed, then there's only one account in that machine, which is your son's.
Click to expand...
Depends, on 10 (Pro) it simply lists Other User.
 
NT1440 said:
Even if you use the old “I don’t have internet” trick?
Click to expand...
Yes, windows 11 takes that away, but there are still work around, though its a bit more involved. Basically if you know how to do it, you're probably going to go with the pro version anyways
 
maflynn said:
Yes, windows 11 takes that away, but there are still work around, though its a bit more involved. Basically if you know how to do it, you're probably going to go with the pro version anyways
Click to expand...
I’m reeeeeeeaaaally not looking forward to inevitably having to move my company (which has now doubled in size) to W11.
 
NT1440 said:
Even if you use the old “I don’t have internet” trick?
Click to expand...
The setup will insist in connecting to internet. Note that this is for Home version. And this is just for the first account. Once Windows is setup, additional users can still be offline accounts.

Windows 11 Pro will still offer option to create offline account during setup.
 
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mi7chy said:
Sounds like you're using a Microsoft cloud account to log into Windows. Why? Local account can recover from being locked out.
Click to expand...
maflynn said:
As other's stated you really need a local admin account, just for these sort of situations. Regardless of the platform, I always had an admin account handy in case my personal account became corrupted and/or locked out
Click to expand...
NT1440 said:
This is why I refuse to use cloud accounts for anything on my machines. Local only.
Click to expand...
Far easier suggested than executed.

ian87w said:
Windows 11 Home will force your first account during setup to be a cloud account.
Click to expand...
NT1440 said:
Even if you use the old “I don’t have internet” trick?
Click to expand...
I have not yet tried Windows 11, but even Windows 10 has been changed over the years, taking away side avenues. Quite frankly, the following tricks may no longer work:

helpdeskgeek.com

How To Setup Windows 10 Without a Microsoft Account

If you’re trying to set up a computer, you’ve probably noticed that there are no alternate options to logging in with a Windows account. This is especially so for users jumping to Windows 10 from Windows 7, where you could easily set up and sign in normally without a Microsoft account. In...
helpdeskgeek.com helpdeskgeek.com

This is almost as bad as the activation problem(s), which has the only solution of “You can purchase a new key…” (I am speaking of keys, digital and physical sticker, that you know with certainty have never by used on a different PC.)
 
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I like Microsoft. I have primarily used Windows computers my entire life. This is one thing that really made me want to move entirely away from the platform. Luckily this is a replacement gaming pc from his old gaming pc that is breaking down. He is still able to use his old computer. If that were not so I would have taken more drastic measures. I could have wiped the PC and started over but we had just set everything up and transferred all of his old data. It took a while to get all the programs synced and all his data back where it is supposed to be. I just didn't want to do all that again.

So now it is just a waiting game. I wanted to ask for help but I also wanted to know if anyone else has had this problem? How common an issue is it? Seems like if it happened to a business or enterprise customer that Microsoft might fix this issue??
 
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