"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
    2025-05-23T05:53:20+00:00

    After 2 days of being locked out of my laptop I'm finally typing this on my laptop. There are many ways to fix this problem including the use of the recovery environment or resetting your pin using "forgot PIN" but for me I couldn't get into recovery environment or reset my PIN.

    What worked for me, is first entering my PIN after which "This sign-in option is disabled" pops up and then waiting the two hours after which it let me log in with my PIN. KEEP IN MIND that when waiting the two hours you HAVE to keep the screen from going into sleep mode/turning off or else the timer will reset, you can do this by pressing keys while waiting. (I just kept my left hand on my laptop pressing random keys every 10-ish seconds) after 2 hours the prompt to enter in a pin should be there again and you should be able to login as long as you didn't reset the timer. If this worked for you and you're in, you should do as another user said, (sorry I couldn't find your original reply but thank you) and go to Settings, Sign-in options, scroll down to additional settings and turn off "only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device" this should let you enter your password when logging into your computer so you don't have to use your PIN. Hopefully this works as well as it did for me for others, good luck.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-23T08:13:15+00:00

    "StartFragmentWhat worked for me, is first entering my PIN after which "This sign-in option is disabled" pops up and then waiting the two hours after which it let me log in with my PIN. KEEP IN MIND that when waiting the two hours you HAVE to keep the screen from going into sleep mode/turning off or else the timer will reset, you can do this by pressing keys while waiting. (I just kept my left hand on my laptop pressing random keys every 10-ish seconds) after 2 hours the prompt to enter in a pin should be there again and you should be able to login as long as you didn't reset the timer. EndFragment"

    Yes, this is exactly what I did too, confirms my suspicion that it is a Microsoft Authentication problem like the expired domain cached login token problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-23T11:44:13+00:00

    Because its user problem, its not pin you need to know its the original password you need to know not the pin, pin only a pin instead of having to type the full password, but you can log in on any device with the email address and password, online is your Microsoft account, and there you can change the password add a cell so you never get locked out or hacked,not on the computer, this is too complicated for you all to manage posting in this forum

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-23T12:40:02+00:00

    this forum is now 56 pages because of lazy incompetence,, all the reasons and answers and solutions and causes are in this forum over and over again many times,, yet every day someone post the same thing saying i waited 2 hours any one have a fix, lol, etc , instead of reading or skimming through the 1st few pages to find a solution that works for them,, its hilarious , i am soon leaving this forum, , cant help repeat the same thing over and over much longer,

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-23T14:03:31+00:00

    Because its user problem, its not pin you need to know its the original password you need to know not the pin, pin only a pin instead of having to type the full password, but you can log in on any device with the email address and password, online is your Microsoft account, and there you can change the password add a cell so you never get locked out or hacked,not on the computer, this is too complicated for you all to manage posting in this forum

    Forgive me if I disagree with you but I don't think every single person on here has forgotten their password or their PIN. Some of course will have forgotten their password but the PIN problem appears even if you do know both. I have worked in IT for decades now and if I had £1 for every time I have had to help a user recover their forgotten password, I would be very happy, so I get where you are coming from. However, I strongly suspect based on my own experience of this recently not everyone has forgotten their password and PIN.

    A PIN is as you say just a PIN, but it is local to the machine only. The problem I was seeing, and I suspect many others as well (based on the comments on the recovery environment being locked out also), was that once the problem appears you cannot get the password to work either.

    I certainly could not, and we had the user password and could sign in online to the Microsoft Account with it. The problem was I could not get the password sign in option to be displayed on the machine whilst the fault was active. The only option was PIN and that is a local device option that is not stored in the Microsoft account and cannot be reset anywhere but on the machine. We are seeing a more complicated situation for some users than a simply forgotten password and PIN.

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