r/mildlyinfuriating • u/a_good_human GREEN • 1d ago

Every fucking time I try to sign into my Microsoft account it gets blocked and I have to reset my password

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Like why not let me sign in through an email on one of my other accounts at this point. Fucking ridiculous

54 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

42

u/ALombardi 1d ago

“ wrong password too many times” means a couple possible things… usually one of these 2:

  1. Your old device (like a phone or tablet) is attempting to authenticate over and over with old creds

  2. Someone is attempting to brute force it as they found your old password somewhere online

23

u/jrdiver 1d ago
  1. Both of the above!

2

u/cbrworm 1d ago

So, what’s the best solution for #2, aside from changing the password (again) and (he is) using 2FA? I have a customer who gets this frequently through his Comcast business class supplied O365. Granted, he is also someone who surely falls for phishing attempts, despite a significant amount of training and frequent testing.

7

u/spikernum1 1d ago

Create a Gmail account, change your outlook settings to use the alias account for login. Login with your Gmail email and password from now on. Disable your main email from being a login email.

I did this a year ago after about a decade of being spammed with failed login attempts from Russia, Poland, and South America.

Now if someone tries to login with my outlook email it behaves as if there is no account with that email address. No attempt, no alert.

There is a reddit guide I will try to find and link here.

Here is a Microsoft link that explains how https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com-459b1989-356d-40fa-a689-8f285b13f1f2

1

u/cbrworm 1d ago

Thanks, I’ll look into this, it sounds ideal!

1

u/xShinobiii 1d ago

I have read somewhere that you can create an alias and use it as a primary login(name). If it was john.doe@outlook.com before you can use j.doe2025@outlook.com for example.

1

u/ALombardi 1d ago

You can’t fix users. Only real options (if possible) is to enforce something like a conditional access policy to allow logons from certain locations/IPs. The outside locations won’t get far. Beyond that, you can add an Alias address to most Outlook/Hotmail/etc accounts and set the alias as the sign in name. You essentially then setup “2 “ addresses you can receive mail at the same address, but now you can disable the “original” account as the sign in method so it’s useless to external threats without having your new alias.

1

u/NuclearThane 14h ago

It makes absolutely NO sense that they make us change the password any time there is suspicious activity. I have 2FA set up, so why the hell does it matter if someone is trying to log in?! If they ever got the password right, I would see the 2FA request come up on my phone, and reject it.

What's the value in changing it every single time? If they have the email address, the sign-in attempts will continue.

This system basically means that even if nobody is trying to hack you, a vindictive ex or someone who hates you could just fail some log-in attempts on your Microsoft account every day, just to force you to change your password over and over and over again.

11

u/Ok-Lettuce5983 1d ago

honestly i fucking hate microsoft

8

u/Dewdropdreamm 1d ago

Happens to me too, I wonder what’s going on with Microsoft

0

u/A6uh 1d ago

Same. I had a problem for years that Microsoft wouldn’t let me change my password because someone was entering the wrong password too many times. Like… yeah that’s why I’m trying to secure my account further lol.

5

u/Similar_Cranberry_23 1d ago

Mine too, I feel your pain. We should start a miscrosoft password survivors group. I bet there is millions of us

2

u/Used-Fisherman9970 1d ago

I recommend getting the Microsoft Authenticator app, it’s kind of a pain but it’s faster and fixed my issues lol

2

u/trickyvinny 1d ago

Wells Fargo made me change my username, then wouldn't load, so when I logged in again I had to change my username again. Tf.

1

u/Acceptable-Yak-4040 1d ago

Set up 2 step verification on your phone. This happened to me for almost a year and drove me nuts, set up 2 step verification and changed my password. Not a problem now!

1

u/NaoTwoTheFirst 1d ago

You all realize that someone else tried to steal OPs account and that's why its blocked?

It is way safer for the original user to reset the password than letting someone else have unlimited tries to steal your account.

1

u/RuffRyda420 1d ago

That's how mine was too, but then I just made a new email and used that one for my Microsoft account only and it works perfectly fine.

1

u/TeddyBear312 1d ago

I had this issue for 2 years. Every few weeks i would have had to change passwords, even though i use 2 factor authentication.

It stopped about 2 months ago and i feel liberated!

1

u/spikernum1 1d ago

Add alias for login and disable your main account from being able to login.

You can still use your main email normally, just not for login.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-or-remove-an-email-alias-in-outlook-com-459b1989-356d-40fa-a689-8f285b13f1f2

1

u/uselessmindset 1d ago

Bots have ruined the sign in and password retrieval process by requesting password changes or verification codes. Now whenever I try to change my password or retrieve one of my accounts I’ve been trying to for at least a year, I get the notice that there have been too many attempts and that I just wait and try again.

1

u/Various-Recording-95 1d ago

you could enable password less basicly you log in and it instantly go into 2 way authentificator I have it enabled since covid and I havent had any more problems of people trying my password since then

1

u/bbby_chaltinez 1d ago

someone’s been doing that. i have pings and have had people actually get into old emails. if you can get in, you can see all the different exit nodes in access history.

0

u/TheQuoWarranto 1d ago

Same thing happens to me with Best Buy! Welcome to the club of poor systems integration, bad backends, and burnt out system administrators. 

1

u/treeteathememeking 1d ago

I don't think Microsoft is capable of making anything that's even partially functional tbh

2

u/NaoTwoTheFirst 1d ago

You realize that someone else tried to steal OPs account and that's why its blocked. It is way safer for the original user to reset the password than letting someone else have unlimited tries to steal your account.

2

u/Ill-Orchid-2939 1d ago

They were able to access it after resetting their password indicating it functions at least partially. Why do you think they can't make something capable of partially functioning when the case you commented on clearly proves they can?

1

u/Mediocre-Housing-131 1d ago

OP decided they weren’t gonna read the second paragraph and instead took all the time to screenshot it and make a post on Reddit about it instead

3

u/greyflam 1d ago

Yes but It is unusual to have your account blocked and have to reset the pw because of that. I just checked my recent Hotmail login activity, there are dozens of failed login attempts from all around the world just in the last day and my account hasn’t been blocked.

1

u/Mediocre-Housing-131 1d ago

Hotmail is a joke lol. You’re saying because some ancient mail service doesn’t use authentication after failed login attempts is a GOOD thing?

1

u/greyflam 1d ago

Am l? Don’t think I did say that

1

u/NortonBurns 1d ago

I had that as a recurring theme for about a year, because my account was part of my mail provider's account not an independent one.
I fixed it by changing mail provider. I now have no connection at all to anything Microsoft.

0

u/Zero-lives 1d ago

Dude just enter a new password, confirm the email they send you, confirm phone text number, enter verification pin, fax a note from your fifth grade english teacher, enter your ssn, and finally simply press the of and under where sign find okay?  Easy peesy.

Btw your password has now been leaked in an oopsy.

0

u/Saneless 1d ago

I've had to do that too

Why should I have to reset my password? It's obvious that my current password is fucking working as intended

Eventually it just has to email me a code

In your case OP, I recommend creating an account alias, switching it to primary, and disabling logging in with your current one. And never use your alias for any sites or lists

0

u/AcanthisittaFlaky385 1d ago

Outlook has a serious problem...possibly with bots trying to brute force passwords. I sign-in with an alternative email via link and I've gotten tens of random requests to access my outlook account.

0

u/ThisUserAgain 1d ago

This also contributed to Skype's downfall, especially the frequent automatic log-outs, which are particularly frustrating for users traveling.

Many can’t be bothered with the tedious reset process, which often fails, so they end up creating new accounts. Ironically, this inflates daily sign-up numbers and overall account metrics, ultimately boosting the bonuses and KPIs of Microsoft’s product managers.

0

u/Prestanovich42 1d ago

I moved to a google account after not 1, but 3 outlook/microshit accounts got hacked over the space of 6 yrs, havent looked back.

0

u/Expert-Algae926 1d ago

Ms, auth is crap

-1

u/MysticAmaze_ 1d ago

This is why Gmail is so much better