Surface won't let me log in "Your PIN is no longer available due to a change in security settings."

Anonymous
2018-06-11T15:32:25+00:00

Greetings,

I have a Surface Pro running Windows 10.  When I opened it this morning Hello did not recognize me and said "Your PIN is required to sign in."  When I tried to put my PIN in it says "Your PIN is no longer available due to a change in security settings..."  I have not created a USB boot drive.  How do I get logged in?

**Moved to Windows Hello as this is not a problem with the Surface**

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2018-07-01T16:34:05+00:00

I had this same issue on a family member's computer. I chatted with Microsoft and the only way we could get it fixed was a system reset. I'd say try a restore if you have a restore point first. This was a fairly new computer (Surface Laptop purchased a month ago). After the reset, facial recognition started working again as did the option for a PIN.

Reset this PC.

  1. From the sign-in screen, press and hold the shift key on the keyboard, select the power icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, and then select Restart. Keep holding the shift key until the device restarts and the Choose an option screen appears on a blue background.
  2. Once Windows Recovery loads, release the shift button, and then select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Reset this PC> Keep my files.
  3. You should now be able to sign-in again.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-22T22:08:50+00:00

    I have this same problem and there are no other login options

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-17T13:11:05+00:00

    Yuck. At this point, you may want to consider reimaging from a downloadable

    recovery image-

    Go to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surfacerecoveryimage   (with a

    different Windows computer if yours is not working properly)  and download a

    recovery image for your Surface. You will need a 16GB USB stick formatted FAT32.

    Unzip/extract the recovery zip to the formatted USB stick and then-

    1. Make sure your Surface is turned off and plugged in, and then insert the USB

    recovery drive into the USB port.

    1. Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power

    button.

    1. When the Microsoft or Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button.
    2. When prompted, select the language and keyboard layout you want.
    3. Select Troubleshoot , and then select Recover from a drive . If prompted for

    a recovery key, select Skip this drive at the bottom of the screen.

    Note:

    Be sure to select the Troubleshoot option on this screen. Don’t select the Use a

    device option. If you select the Use a device option, your Surface will reboot

    from the USB recovery drive again and the reset process will start over.

    1. Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive.

    The option to clean the drive is more secure but takes much longer. For example,

    if you’re recycling your Surface, you should clean the drive. If you’re keeping

    your Surface, you just need to remove your files.

    1. Select Recover.

    Surface restarts and displays the Surface logo while the reset process

    continues. This can take several minutes.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-17T12:29:26+00:00

    There isn’t an option for me to sign in to my laptop using my microsoft account password. I ran a microsoft update which required my laptop to restart. Once the laptop restarted, the sign in screen indicated that I have two sign in options: facial recognition and to enter a pin. The facial recognition doesn’t work because it says i need to enter a pin and the pin option doesn’t work because it has the error message your pin is no longer available.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-06-17T11:38:14+00:00

    Just so you know i returned my laptop for a new one under warrenty. I was told that there was a problem with the software.

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