Message says "The Microsoft account doesn't exist. Enter a different account or get a new one."

S. Lenear 111 Reputation points
2021-04-07T23:57:25.717+00:00

I am trying to sign in to a new computer using my Microsoft account. I know the account is valid because it is the same one I am using in this forum. But, I get a message saying "The Microsoft account doesn't exist. Enter a different account or get a new one." What do I do?

By the way, I have no idea what I'm supposed to enter in the "Tags" field below. There is nothing that tells me what types of things I can enter. That is frustrating because the field is required.

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | Devices and deployment | Configure application groups

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  1. Mathias Schneider 11 Reputation points
    2023-01-05T20:57:47.813+00:00

    I had deactivated all possible Settings in Privacy settings.
    Then the Problem was gone on Windows.
    I do not know how they are translated in English it was something like "experience online content"

    I am not using Outlook anymore......On Mac the Search function also was not working.

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  2. Skeezzzixx A 5 Reputation points
    2023-01-19T12:36:50.0033333+00:00

    My answer is to jettison Microsoft for something that works. I'm retired and just want to look at the news and leave comments and don't **** about accounts and signing in and administrators and work/school. This thing does so much stuff that it can't do anything.

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  3. Rob Moore 0 Reputation points
    2023-01-23T20:57:37.99+00:00

    I worked around it.. I have my phone number setup in my account, so instead of email, I used my phone number. It then asked me to create a password so I backed out thinking it wouldnt work. I then tried my email and the system worked.

    Dont know if that is the work around..but something clicked for me to get by it didnt recognize me

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  4. Emanuel Dabah 0 Reputation points
    2023-03-04T11:47:40.21+00:00

    This is madness, I enter an email address and the setup says that the account does not exist, so I click on "create a new one" which takes me to the create account screen with the email address pre populated where it then says that the account already exists and I should use it to log in !! Madness.

    Anyway, the shortcut to making a local login is to use Shift-F10 to get to the command prompt and there issue an ipconfig /release which will disconnect the device from the network. Then when you go back to the MS login screen and hit the back arrow it goes to the local account creation screen.

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  5. Joseph Bergey 0 Reputation points
    2023-04-04T18:50:18.5466667+00:00

    After wondering about this myself, I finally found the answer. I'll summarize the best I can, but the link is below should you want to read for yourself. Microsoft basically boils their accounts down to two categories... first: Personal and second: Work or School... you have a unique Identity that must be authenticated regardless of which category account you have. The difference between the two is that Microsoft handles identity authentication and authorization over Personal (consumer) accounts but on the business/school side there are options to handle this separately. Microsoft used to let one username (email address) be tied to both personal and business/school accounts but it caused great confusion because now personal and work identities and subsequent applications were co-mingling and resulted in Microsoft separating them... They could do a better job at clarifying this when the error message is displayed. I have both account types, as many of us do, but I had to use my personal Microsoft account when setting up my new work PC... not ideal. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/itops-talk-blog/what-s-the-difference-between-a-personal-microsoft-account-and-a/ba-p/2241897

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