"This sign-in option is disabled because of failed sign-in attempts or repeated shutdowns". I've been locked out of my laptop since last night and can't log back in. How do I fix this issue?

Reported
Anonymous
2022-01-28T09:51:54+00:00

So randomly last night (about 12 hours ago) my laptop with Windows 11 shows the above error message when I input my pin.

"This sign-in option is disabled because of failed sign-in attempts or repeated shutdowns. Use a different sign-in option, or keep your device powered on for at least 2 hours and then try again".

Prior to this, I used my laptop normally and everything was fine. I did not put in the pin several times and certainly not repeatedly shut down my laptop, so I'm not sure where this even comes from.

From what I understand, my only chances to log back in my laptop are to:

  1. Wait 2 hours WHILE the laptop is powered on.
  2. Use a different sign-in option (use password - and I have no idea what this password is lol).

I can't do solution 1 because my laptop powers down after like 30 seconds, so I cannot keep it powered on for 2 hours unless I press a button on my laptop every 29 seconds for 2 hours.

For solution 2, the different sign in method asks me to put in a password, not sure which password this is. It can't be the password that I use to log in to my Microsoft account online because it says that's incorrect.

Now, following from solution 2, I get the option to reset this password, by answering 3 memorable questions, but here too at least 1 of memorable questions is incorrect.

Can I get back into my laptop without having to factory reset everything?

Does anyone know if the 2 hours wait need to be consecutive?

Thanks all :)

EDIT: It has been 11 months and people still seem to have the same issue as me. Microsoft, please fix this bug / glitch. It's obviously causing a lot of headaches. I was able to simply factory reset my laptop as everything I had was backed up elsewhere, but I'm sure 90% of the people here cannot do this because the laptop still has vital stuff not backed up else where. Even if they could backup, it's a really long and painful process to set the laptop back up.

This really needs to be addressed asap please :)

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-20T02:59:01+00:00

    I was replacing a battery in an older MSI laptop running Windows 10. Unfortunately, it seems like my replacement battery ended up being faulty. In the course of figuring this out, the laptop was powered down each time I tried to test whether the new battery was going to power the device. Now I'm getting this silly "wait 2 hours" message.

    Even though the device was powered on and off several times in a short period of time, I fail to see how Windows is helping me by preventing me from using my computer. I am greatly irritated that some OS feature team thought it'd be a good idea to put computer owners on timeout because the system's power was cycled in a way the OS does not like.

    This kind of addition to Windows just makes me upset. There is no way the operating system knows about what is happening when it is not running. In my case, when I'm working with a battery replacement, this arbitrary 2-hour timer seems like a huge joke. Why 2 hours? What even is the point of this? Obviously other people have issues with systems that won't stay on this long. The laptop I'm working on should stay on 120 minutes but every minute I'm sitting here trying to figure out possible explanation there is for this situation even existing.

    The Windows dev team did not think the execution through on this one. Get rid of this aspect of the OS in your next release. All this has done is inconvenience me and prevent me from working on this system. I'm not interested in resetting my pin, so I'm just going to post this rant instead.

    I've been building, repairing and troubleshooting PCs since before Windows 3.11 came out, I do not need these silly training wheels forced on my workflow. Any future additions to windows need to have the option to override any "protection" like this one. It should make the override possible without requiring a workaround that involves changing something unrelated to the issue in question (i.e., don't make me change my PIN/password).

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-26T14:17:18+00:00

    If MS hasn't solved these issues even after so many people have faced it for so many days, that's a sign that they don't care. It's time to start thinking of switching over to Apple.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-25T06:27:36+00:00

    I am going to fail my online class because I can't log in to my own computer.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-29T02:46:45+00:00

    The only way I found to fix it is to select Forgot PIN and go through the process to reset it to a new one. But this didn't work every time unfortunately.

    Why it doesn't give us an option to enter a password only Microsoft can say. Very annoying?

    I hope resetting it works for you.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-12-19T00:31:29+00:00

    Aah. That's interesting. I guess our habitual reaction is to input the pin immediately. I have also had some success with resetting the PIN via the Microsoft website but not always. It's infuriating that they do not offer the verification app but then not everyone is using it yet. I would definitely encourage it's use though.

    Sadly quite a number of times now I have had to back up the customer's data from a USB copy of Windows and then wipe their computer and do a fresh install of Windows 10 or 11. I feel this is absurd. We shouldn't have to do this. Has anyone from Microsoft actually responded to this thread yet? I didn't see any comments from them.

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