How to login in Windows Surface after a gap of of few years?

NM 0 Reputation points
2025-11-25T13:53:28.8566667+00:00

I tried to login in my Surface device after a gap of 3 years. Despite entering my current password in the login window- it is repeatedly giving me this message "Your PC is offline. Please sign in with the last password used on this PC."

I can not remember which password i had used 3 years back on this device. Due to this now I am stuck and can not enter into the device. Please help me to log in. I have valuable data which i want to retrieve thus factory reset is not my preferred option.

Surface | Surface Go | Network
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  1. Jess-Q 12,705 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-11-26T13:48:40+00:00

    Hi @NM

    Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.  

    Regarding your issue, I understand how frustrating this can be, especially since you have important data on the device. The message “Your PC is offline. Please sign in with the last password used on this PC” usually means the device can’t verify your current Microsoft account password because it’s not connected to the internet. 

    Here are a few steps you can try: 

    1. Connect to Wi-Fi 
    • On the login screen, look at the bottom-right corner for the Wi-Fi icon. 
    • If available, click it and connect your network. 
    • Once connected, sign in using your current Microsoft account password. 
    1. Open in Safe Mode with Networking:
    • On the login screen, hold the Shift key and select Restart.
    • In the recovery options, choose Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings > Restart.
    • After restart, press F5 or 5 to enable Safe Mode with Networking.
    • From Safe Mode, connect to Wi-Fi, then try logging in with your current password.

    For more details, please refer to: Windows Startup Settings

    Troubleshoot Problems Signing In to Windows

    Hopefully it will help with your issue and please give it a try and update for me to know if it helps. 

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".     

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

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