Microsoft Family Cannot be reached

Question

Microsoft Family Cannot be reached

jk 0

Monday this problem occured on my daugthers laptop running Windows 11 Home. She's limited to only have acces from 6:30 to 19:00 every day. Monday when she used the laptop in school, it was just closed, said it would only open again at 6:30. As if there was some date/time issue.

Now, in my admin account on her laptop, under Settings -> Accounts -> Family there's a yellow box: "Microsoft Family Safety cannot be reached right now".

I have fixed her computer by deleting her account from her laptop and adding her back again, but now no family safety features is in place on her account. It simply still says Microsoft Family Security is not available.

Now, I have just tried on my Windows 11 Home workstation, which has never had a user with family safety added before, to see if I could add her as a user with family safety features in place there.

But before even adding her at all- in setting -> Accounts -> Family it says the same thing. "Microsoft Family Security cannot be reached right now"

Is Microsoft Family Security just gone down completely? Is this a know bug?

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3 answers

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Answer 1

jk 0

It's completely fine on the the Family Safety website. I can login, my daugthers account is perfectly included, her settings is in place.

There's red message though: "<child's name> needs to sign in again on Windows (<computer name>) to verify their account." - I guess because her account was removed.

Now, focusing on my work station first as this is less complicated than my daughers laptop:

I tried your step, it didn't fix it. My workstation is a fresh install after format, it's less than 1 week old, everything is updated. Everything time related is set up correctly (defaults), but i triggered a manual sync anyway of time anyways. I ran the command you provided sucessfully and rebooted, the yellow box "Cannot connect to family safety" persists.

Mind you, this in my workstation, fresh install, everything updated, and I have not yet done anything Family Security related on the computer, other than navigating to Settings -> Account -> Family to see if I could ass my daughter - I didn't even try because I saw the yellow box.

So it definitely seems to be a connection problem.I run a very new Netgear Orbi Wifi 7 mesh network. Only cusom setting is that I have set op the DNS-servers fom 1.0.0.1 : https://one.one.one.one/family/

I did try though to use the hotspot of my mobile phone's 5G network, and it didn't change the yellow boc.

I highly doubt the problem is local.

Xavier-D 13,400 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-19T00:34:08.31+00:00
Hi jk

Thank you for the detailed update.

Your hotspot test is especially useful because the same warning remained when the workstation was no longer using the Orbi network or its custom DNS. I therefore would not suggest changing the router or DNS configuration again at this stage.

The red message on the Family Safety website is a separate, actionable item. Because your daughter’s Windows account was removed, she must sign in again on her laptop with that same Microsoft account. If Windows displays Verify under Settings > Accounts, complete the verification.

A Windows device becomes connected after the child signs in, and the child account should remain a Standard user.

However, that does not explain why your newly installed workstation, where your daughter has not yet been added, continues to show “Cannot connect to Family Safety.” Since:

the family group works correctly on the website;

Windows and the system time are fully updated;

the Family Safety refresh task completed successfully;

the warning occurs on a fresh Windows installation; and

changing to a separate mobile network made no difference,

this has been narrowed down to the connection between Windows Settings and the Family Safety service or your Microsoft account. I would not recommend another Windows reinstall or repeating the family-removal steps.

At this point, I suggest contact Microsoft Support for further assistance:

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas.

Open a website link - Contact - Microsoft Support

In the box below "We're here to help", type Microsoft 365, click "Get Help", and then click "Contact Support" below.

In this section, you will need to sign in to your Microsoft account.

Select "Microsoft 365 and Office" under Products & Services, select "Technical Support" as the category, and click to confirm

You can select " Chat with a support agent in your web browser " to access the chat window.

When contact provide the exact warning, your Windows edition, version and OS build from Settings > System > About, and mention that the Family Safety website works while the windows Settings page fails on a fresh installation and on two different networks.

Because this is only a community forum so we cannot inspect the Family Safety service or account-side connection records, so Microsoft Support is needed for further investigation.

Answer 2

jk 0

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Answer 3

Hello jk

Because this occurs on two separate Windows 11 computers, including one that was not previously configured for Family Safety, here what you can do:

First, please sign in to the Microsoft Family Safety website using the organizer account. Does the family group and your daughter’s account display correctly there?

Also, because the laptop behaved as though the permitted time had started on the wrong day or at the wrong time, check Settings > Time & language > Date & time on both computers. Make sure Set time automatically, Set time zone automatically, and Sync now are working. An incorrect time zone can cause Family Safety activity to be recorded under a different day.

Next, run Microsoft’s Family Safety refresh task on each affected computer:

Press Windows + R, enter cmd, and select OK.
Run schtasks /run /tn "Microsoft\Windows\Shell\FamilySafetyRefreshTask".
Restart the computer and check Settings > Accounts > Family again.

Please let me know whether the family group is accessible through the Family Safety website, as that will help distinguish a Windows connection problem from an account-side problem.

Feel free reply back to this post if you need further assistance, I'll be happy to help.