Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again.

Anonymous
2020-07-12T23:16:34+00:00

* * Locked * *

I have a new PC with W10. I decided to use the PIN code, but now I get the message "Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again."

When I click 'Set up my PIN' nothing, the same message reappears.

I looked up the issue on the internet and found that I should login using another sign-in option. However, there is no way to get to another option. The text above is all I see on the screen.

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.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2020-07-12T23:37:28+00:00

Hello there! I'm sorry that didn't work. You can try this steps instead:

Turn off your PC

Start your PC, just as Windows attempts to load (spinning dots), press and hold Power Button on the casing of your PC for 5 - 10 seconds to perform a Hard Shut Down

Do this twice

On the third start Windows will boot into the Recovery Environment and from there you can access System Repair, Safe Mode, Command Prompt . . . etc.

Please try each option one at a time, then see of Windows will boot . . .

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - Startup Repair

See if Windows startup can repair itself

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - System Restore

Check to see if you have a restore point you can go back to

If you do not have a Restore Point, go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - Startup Settings and click Restart

Upon restart, press 4 to enter Safe Mode

Once in Safe Mode, backup your data if you do not already have a backup

Open Device Manager and check to make sure all your Drivers are up to date

Reboot to see if Windows will start Normally

If the above fails, go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Reset this PC

Choose to keep your files and apps, just your files or to keep nothing

Then start the Reset

Hope this will do the trick

Regards,

Louie

Was this answer helpful?

1400+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

492 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2021-08-06T16:29:25+00:00

    Just want to add my solution as I had to use an altered method to ones on here.

    Firstly I use a Microsoft account and my issue was also stuck at the sign in screen with the PIN issue everyone else has. My issue was a result of doing a recommended BIOS update that I was prompted to do, after I accepted and it ran the update I couldn't get back into windows cos of the PIN issue.

    I also had the option for face recognition sign in with my laptop camera, but I have the camera disabled through the Lenovo vantage software so I wasn't able to use that log in either. There was no option for password login for my Microsoft account (I know my password).

    I tried a lot of methods and I'm not sure exactly how many contributed to the solution, but I believe it was likely only these 2 that did the trick:

    1 - First need to enable the CMD via the sticky keys method from IMQ2 July 28 2021. I also did not need to use any boot disk/drive.

    The second part of that method was using sticky keys command prompt to open ms-config and select normal start up. This didn't do anything for me and normal start up was already selected.

    2 - The second part which I think fixed my issue was part of another method that previously wouldn't work for me when I was using the command prompt through the troubleshoot screen. This method was found through a link on reddit r/LinusTechTips, under the title < error "Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again." >

    In this part I used sticky keys cmd to run regedit, I wasn't able to do the load hive part but I was able to go to the same location in regedit

    "Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ssoftware\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device. There there is a key for DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion. Change the value from 2 to 0. This will turn off that "Require Windows Hello" setting."

    I did the above instruction but mine was xxx\software\xxx rather than ssoftware because I was unable to load the hive in the previous step.

    After doing the above and typing "shutdown /r" to reboot my laptop, when it restarted it finally showed an option for entering a password with the sign-in options which was previously only pin or face recognition. Then I just entered my account pw and it logged in! After this I still had the pin issue but now it would let me change the pin by logging into my microsoft account whereas before it would just be stuck.

    If this still doesn't work for you I also had another option I had yet to try from a site called top-password, under the article title:

    How to Set Default Sign-in Option in Windows 10

    I was hoping to enable password login with that method before the above worked.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-08-05T13:53:42+00:00

    I had to reinstall some apps but it was worth reseting it rather than wait

    Thank you Louie_101

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2021-08-05T05:39:44+00:00

    You may have issues finding some of your apps to reinstall. But it does have its benefits.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2021-08-04T13:32:26+00:00

    That worked for me, except my files were mirrored on my desktop. So, they mostly came right back.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments