Windows phone can't connect

I presume that you have tried my instructions from step onward. This worked OK for me in the spring. If it no longer works then it may be something to do with the withdrawal of support for Windows 8.1 phone. I presume that the phone is a model supposedly up-gradable to Windows 10.

I am sorry, but I don't think I can help further.

It doesn’t work, whether you use the games app, add an account or store options. It simply won’t connect. Same as always “we can’t connect at the moment. Wait for a while and try again”

No error code no nothing. Still

signed into microsoft account but doesn’t make a blind bit of difference.

Support for Windows 8.1 phone has already ceased and support for Windows 10 phone will end at the end of the year. If you have done a Factory reset, the phone will be back to its original state using Windows 8.1. I am not sure that the recovery tool will do any good now. If you can set the date and time, and access the Internet, you should be able to login to login.live.com and follow the instructions I gave.

You understand, I hope, that step 5 applies to the phone you are trying to get working, not to any computer you may have handy.

I'm afraid I do not understand what you mean when you say you were not prompted for credentials. You need to go to login.live.com to log on. If you have an account, you will be prompted for credentials. If you do not have an account you will be asked to create on, and again you will need to enter the credentials you intend to use. Have available a phone or computer able to receive e-mails from a non-Microsoft provider so you can check for messages.

It seems that the original authenticating protocol for windows 8.1 phones no longer works, hence a factory reset will set the protocol to its original state. Windows 8.1 phones that have been in regular use do not have this problem, because the protocol has been automatically updated.

I found a fix as follows.

1.     Make sure time and date are set correctly. It is probably handy to have nearby a computer or other device that can receive e-mails. If not, you  can probably configure the phone to receive non-Microsoft e-mails, even if you can't access the Microsoft account by the means you have tried.

2.    Start Internet Explorer and go to the web address:   login.live.com

3.    This opens the Microsoft login page. If you have a Microsoft account, login now and go to 5: if not . . .

4.     Create a Microsoft account. This will require  a secondary e-mail account other than Hotmail.  You may be sent a security code to the secondary account and you will need to receive this and enter it before you can proceed further.

5.    Stay logged in to Microsoft. Go to Settings, e-mail+accounts, Microsoft account. You should now see a screen asking for your credentials again. Enter your login name and password and secondary e-mail address.

6.    A security code will be e-mailed to the secondary address. Enter this.

7.    You should now be good to go. Try to install an app to test it. (A useful app is the Flashlight.) 

In general, if apps fail to download the problem is probably do to failure of authentication of the Internet path to Microsoft, and a login to the login.live.com page usually restores the authentication.

Using this method, I was able to download apps and the upgrade advisor, and successfully upgrade to Windows 10.

Dunno if you'll get an update about this response, but I tried these steps and still had an issue where when I tried to go to login to the account, I wasn't prompted for a credentials. Just the same "Sign in" or "Create account" screen and it still failed to activate. 

Any thoughts?

Anybody here can help as I just have my lumia 1520 back from the drawer, trying to reinstall all the apps I need before the window phone 8.1 market shuts down on 16 Dec 2019.

Tried all following methods but no luck:

1. Factory reset
2. Windows device recovery tool (reinstall the software)
3. Date and time setting manually.