Persistent "Sign in / Attention Required" loop after Microsoft Account primary alias change (Survives Fresh Installs)

Question

Persistent "Sign in / Attention Required" loop after Microsoft Account primary alias change (Survives Fresh Installs)

inertoaster69 0

Hi,

I changed the primary email alias on my Microsoft Account a while ago. Since that change, Windows 11 continuously triggers a "Sign in / Attention Required" notification in the Settings app and Action Center.

Crucially, this issue survives complete hard drive formats and fresh installations across both Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro editions. Every time I install Windows on a machine and sign in with my new primary alias, the OS eventually gets stuck in this background authentication loop for Shared Experiences / Account sync.

Troubleshooting already attempted:

Clearing old cached tokens and credentials from Windows Credential Manager.
Verifying the account in Settings > Accounts (the new alias shows up correctly, but the sync prompt endlessly loops).
Complete OS reinstalls (tested on both Home and Pro editions).

Because this happens on completely fresh installations, it appears my Microsoft Account cloud backup or device history is permanently pushing a legacy token or ghost configuration associated with my old alias.

How can I get this corrupted token flushed from my Microsoft Account backend so fresh Windows installations stop pulling the broken credentials?

Thank you!

olivia parker 0 Reputation points

2026-09-05T07:53:02.78+00:00

Since the issue survives clean Windows installations, checking the account entries under Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts is a good next step. Removing any entries tied to the old alias, restarting, and signing in again with the current alias may clear the recurring prompt. If it still happens, the exact error shown by the sign-in window would help narrow down whether the issue is account sync or authentication related.
inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-05T13:09:24.94+00:00

Hi Olivia,

Because this issue occurs immediately on a completely fresh Windows 11 installation, there are no old alias entries listed under Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts to remove.

However, I was able to capture the exact error message from the sign-in window crash. When I click the "Sign in" button for the "Share across devices" prompt, the dialog box displays:

"Something went wrong. This application made too many requests. Press Retry to continue."

Error code: 0x80860010

Correlation ID: Moderator note: PII removed

(I have attached a screenshot of this error for reference).

This confirms it is an authentication rate-limit loop. Since my fresh Windows installation is trying to sync using the outdated alias token, it is sending too many rejected requests to the server, and the backend is blocking it with error 0x80860010.

I understand Emma mentioned that moderators cannot access backend systems to purge the cloud data. However, before I resort to navigating Live Chat support, is there any advanced technical guidance—such as a specific PowerShell command, Registry edit, or deeper method to force Windows to abandon the legacy token request—that the community recommends to stop this rate-limiting loop locally?

Thank you!

1 answer

Your answer

olivia parker 0 Reputation points

2026-09-05T07:53:02.78+00:00

Since the issue survives clean Windows installations, checking the account entries under Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts is a good next step. Removing any entries tied to the old alias, restarting, and signing in again with the current alias may clear the recurring prompt. If it still happens, the exact error shown by the sign-in window would help narrow down whether the issue is account sync or authentication related.
inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-05T13:09:24.94+00:00

Hi Olivia,

Because this issue occurs immediately on a completely fresh Windows 11 installation, there are no old alias entries listed under Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts to remove.

However, I was able to capture the exact error message from the sign-in window crash. When I click the "Sign in" button for the "Share across devices" prompt, the dialog box displays:

"Something went wrong. This application made too many requests. Press Retry to continue."

Error code: 0x80860010

Correlation ID: Moderator note: PII removed

(I have attached a screenshot of this error for reference).

This confirms it is an authentication rate-limit loop. Since my fresh Windows installation is trying to sync using the outdated alias token, it is sending too many rejected requests to the server, and the backend is blocking it with error 0x80860010.

I understand Emma mentioned that moderators cannot access backend systems to purge the cloud data. However, before I resort to navigating Live Chat support, is there any advanced technical guidance—such as a specific PowerShell command, Registry edit, or deeper method to force Windows to abandon the legacy token request—that the community recommends to stop this rate-limiting loop locally?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Emma1-N 12,445 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Welcome inertoaster69,

Thank you for providing such a detailed description of the issue. I understand how frustrating it must be to see the same "Sign in / Attention Required" notification continue even after performing clean installations of Windows 11 and changing nothing except signing back into your Microsoft account.

A few questions first since this affects the troubleshooting path:

Does the notification appear under Settings > Accounts > Your info,Email & accounts, or Windows backup / Sync your settings?
When the prompt appears, does it eventually show an error message, or does the sign-in window simply close and reappear?
Have you already removed and re-added the Microsoft account under Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts on a fresh installation?

In the meantime, please try these checks:

Open Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts
Under Accounts used by other apps, remove any Microsoft account entries that still reference the old alias.
Restart Windows.
Sign in again using the current primary alias and check whether the notification returns.

Also, Microsoft states that account aliases belong to the same Microsoft account and can all be used for sign-in, so the issue is not necessarily evidence of a corrupted account-side token. Change the email address for your Microsoft account

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes". If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-02T11:45:08.6766667+00:00
Hi Emma,

Thank you for the response. To answer your questions:

The notification typically appears in the Action Center (as a toast notification) and under Settings > Apps > Advanced app settings (Share across devices).

When the prompt appears and I click it, the sign-in window usually just flashes, closes, and reappears, or it fails to clear the notification entirely without giving a specific error code.

Because this happens on completely fresh, newly formatted installations of Windows 11 where I sign in with the new alias during the initial setup, there are no old accounts listed under "Accounts used by other apps" to remove.

I have already tried clearing the Windows Credential Manager locally. Since a completely clean Windows installation still triggers this loop as soon as I log in, it seems a ghost token or outdated sync data is stuck on the backend/cloud side of my Microsoft Account.

Is there a specific way to flush the cloud sync data and device history entirely from the backend so fresh installs stop pulling this broken token?
Emma1-N 12,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-03T07:15:47.2333333+00:00

Hello inertoaster69,

Have you tested with a different personal Microsoft account on the same clean Windows 11 installation and confirmed that "Share across devices" works normally without the "Attention Required" notification?
Emma1-N 12,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-04T04:45:25.63+00:00

Hello inertoaster69,

Is there any update from you. Please let me know, I will be here to assist you.
inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-04T14:11:52.33+00:00

Hi Emma,

Thank you for following up!

I have not tested this with a different personal Microsoft account because I do not have a secondary account to use.

However, since this "Attention Required" loop happens immediately upon logging into a completely clean, newly formatted installation of Windows 11 using this specific account, it strongly indicates that the issue is tied to the legacy token data stored on the cloud backend of this specific account, rather than a local OS corruption.

Because I have already tried the standard local troubleshooting steps across multiple fresh installs, is there a way to escalate this to have the backend sync data and device history for this specific account purged from Microsoft's side?

Thank you!
Emma1-N 12,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-05T07:48:59.69+00:00
Hello inertoaster69,

Since the issue persists across multiple clean Windows 11 installations and occurs immediately after signing in with this account, I recommend contacting Microsoft Support for account-level investigation.

Please follow the steps below to connect with Live Chat Support.

Visit the Microsoft Support contact page: Contact - Microsoft Support

In the search bar provided on the page, type "Sign in loop" and press Enter.

Click on the "Get Help" button that appears.

Scroll down the page until you see and click on the "Contact Support" option.

When prompted to select your product or service, choose "Other Products".

For the category, choose "Windows".

Look for and click on "Chat with a support agent in your web browser".

When prompted, provide a valid contact email where Microsoft can reach you regarding your case.

Explain your situation clearly: Be concise but provide all the relevant details.

Disclaimer: Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas.
inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-05T13:14:54.3566667+00:00

Would love to solve the issue if its possible.
inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-05T13:15:58.2+00:00

Hi Emma,

Thank you for the guidance and the explanation regarding backend access. However, I want to exhaust every possible technical solution here in the forum before I even consider navigating the Live Chat support system.

I managed to capture a critical piece of diagnostic information. When the "Share across devices" prompt appears and I click "Sign in", the dialog box displays:

"Something went wrong. This application made too many requests. Press Retry to continue."

Error code: 0x80860010

Correlation ID: Moderator note: PII removed

(I have attached a screenshot of this error below for reference).

This confirms the issue is a continuous rate-limit loop. My fresh Windows installation is stuck trying to sync via an outdated alias token, which spams the server with authentication requests until the backend blocks the device with error 0x80860010.

Given this exact error code, is there absolutely any advanced local workaround (such as a specific PowerShell script, deep token cache wipe, or Registry modification) that can force Windows 11 to abandon this legacy token request? I am hoping someone here has a technical fix so I can resolve this locally and avoid Live Chat entirely.

Thank you again for your time!
Emma1-N 12,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-08T04:31:53.7966667+00:00

Hello inertoaster69,

At this point, the most useful remaining test would be to sign in with a different personal Microsoft account on the same clean installation. If that account does not trigger the Share across devices error, it would strongly suggest the issue is specific to the affected Microsoft account rather than Windows itself.
inertoaster69 0 Reputation points

2026-09-09T11:37:41.7133333+00:00

Hi Emma,

That is a fair point to completely rule out any OS build or network issues. I am creating a test Microsoft account right now to run this exact check on my current installation.

I will reply back with the results.
Emma1-N 12,445 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-10T04:53:21.7466667+00:00

Hello inertoaster69,

Please let me know the result when you have completed the test, and I can review the next steps based on what you find.