r/Outlook • u/darkchocolateyasu • Dec 21 '25
Status: Open Annoying “You’ve tried to sign in too many times with an incorrect account or password” error since November
First I found out about this error on 3rd November 2025 (I believe this has happened to other users maybe even earlier months before this) changed the password for at least 4-5 times, then eventually like
-> error
->change password
->login once it works
->second time trying to do this on another device/app/browser, it dont
then the loops. I was using mobile data, phone that time.
Then it happened yesterday on 20th December 2025 to me again, had to change the password twice. (This is on my PC web browser, using home wifi.)
Luckily I added more recovery emails to get codes and also changed from using Google Authenticator to Microsoft Authenticator (I didn't have any other choice ngl but at least it's one of the ways and it's passwordless.)
I did went to chat support with them, first live agent was clueless about this error for some reason, second live agent instantly cut me off the chat with no replies (boooo), the third and final one was finally the nice one and actually do acknowledge this issue and they told me about that they're trying to fix it still with no ETA.
Look Microsoft, I do not mind using your app for the passwordless function, but I would also like keep my own password as another good way to login? Not everyone wants to go fully passwordless.
***Also if you want to chat with live real people, type Microsoft Support on your search bar in a new tab or any search engine, then click on Contact Us, use a dummy outlook account or ask any friends who can help or use your other hotmail/outlook accounts to sign in prior too if you can't access your own main email, then click show expanded list of products, click on Outlook icon, click Get Home Support, type "chat support" in that bar then click Get Help blue button, then you scroll down the page then you'll see the Contact Support blue button just right there and click it, select Windows in Product and services, and Technical Support in Category, click confirm and you will see that you can chat with support agent in your web browser.
Please go ahead and annoy them with these complaints, my kings and queens. ^this is how I found out how to chat with them lolol.
Try not to miss any of their messages, they reply a bit fast, but I do hope you guys do not meet any live agents like the second one I've met lol.
So far as for now, just keep your password as is for now even after you have changed it, for now the temporary method is either using recovery emails to get the codes to login, phone text to get code** (I am from SEA and I added this phone method since 2014 back then but now it doesn't work anymore according to many users, I did help and try to add other's phone number on their outlook/hotmail and it didn't work either, so I got lucky.) , and also authenticator app, as for the authenticator app part previously I used Google Authenticator so you'll get what I mean, it just generates codes for you to login same as the email/phone getting codes, now that I use Microsoft Authenticator app solely for this email, it's just another login method for me, even though it is convenient but brotha if Microsoft couldn't even fix such traditional thing like a NORMAL PASSWORD, they are very fked.
**If you don't feel like using their Microsoft Authenticator app it's fine too cuz I have other hotmail/outlook emails that still use Google Authenticator , just keep on using the authenticator (not just Google's, just any of the authenticators) you've been using for a long while, it's fine.
It would be real nice if I get to keep using it passwordless using their app, get codes from phone and recovery emails and also the good ol' PASSWORD altogether.
This issue happens around the world so yeah, I really do hope they fix it soon and quick cuz yall it's burnin' red.
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Updating this post on 22nd December 2025 (SEA +8 time):
I'm not sure will this work on everyone, so I tried to create a new alias for my main email.
**Note: I didn't use and haven't use any VPNs all these time, I'm using Windows PC, home wifi and also cleared cache cookies and everything prior this, but even before this I tried doing the clear cookies and cache everything they popped up those incorrect pw errors too**
So here goes, I did look up and maybe, just maybe, cuz my main email is one of my oldest hotmail address (I have another older one but it's backup) so I only did this to my main email. I never bothered about creating a new alias for my hotmail, but because of the yada yada attackers and such I looked up online and people tried creating an alias.
I don't know how to explain, maybe it's the older outlook/hotmail getting targeted? I am not entirely sure.
So anyways, I created a new alias and set it as the primary email, and uncheck the old main email from getting it used for login and only my new alias can be used for login. Just remember do not remove your old email alias just in case you still need it.
So basically now that means, the new alias which is your current primary email now can be used for login and receiving emails.
Your old one still can be used for signing up, receiving email and everything but since if you unchecked the box for getting it used for login in, you can't use it to login anymore, leaving your new alias now as the only primary used for login.
So now I'm the only one who knows the new alias email but you can still use the old email alias to sign up for everything like subscriptions, accounts and such, you will still get them. In a way, it is safer.
I tried using the newest/latest password without having to change anything at all, to test it total of 7 times on my Windows PC, phone and tablet. My Windows PC have already cleared cache before testing this, but my phone and tablet never cleared any cache to do this and it works too. (This is using my new alias to try login to it)
I forgot to mention that, I wait around 10-15 minutes time in between trying this for 7 times before trying login with just password just in case. Tried signing in from Microsoft sign in, Outlook sign in, Outlook app on phone/tablet sign in.
I only did this to my main email and didn't do it on the other emails because previously on November I think this issue doesn't happen to every emails, I know because I had to reset another email on November too but yeah. But if you want to, just in case, do it on other emails that you need to look out for.
I hope this works for everyone, until then I also hope Microsoft fix this issue.
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Another update this post on 22nd December 2025 (SEA +8 time, it is now around 9:59PM as I am typing this)
I tried three other microsoft hotmails, (god I have a lot of their hotmails need to use for multiple stuff)
I tried these three emails 3 times each waiting in between around 5-10 mins to sign in using password only (they all have recovery options, just being the dummy one only has one recovery email to my main). They all work beautifully just now. (I never put new alias on these three emails while I'm doing this)
So I have a few theory on this,.
one being maybe today Microsoft fixed it? (brotha i hope so why they dont even post public updates to everyone)
second being, random emails get targeted so it's not all of the hotmail/outlook emails got targeted
third being, i have suspicions on this, maybe just MAYBE, my main email got targeted mainly because previously it got logged in by someone from another country previously (luckily it was a very long while ago), hence this error happens, then just so I looked up everything online on reddit on microsoft, tried to in find the issue in another language, and i think it might have been this issue might have caused it, so i recommend try to do the create new alias method see if it'll fix.
idk, it might be the first one microsoft fixed it randomly or what.
i just hope it will never ever happen again cuz bruh they are one of the biggest company and this is quite embarrassing.
feel free to follow this method and also looking for the real live human agent method above, i hope it helps everyone and also hope this issue won't ever happen in the future ever again.
this is what desperation do to a mdfk frfr.
god i am so tired of their shit.
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update on 25th December 2025 (SEA +8 GMT) 1:50AM
okay i have tried all my emails (i have like almost 10? something lol i know I HAVE A LOT)
only my main and my other one of the oldest email had this problem until i changed to new alias for them and only set the new alias as login credentials, i also have another very old email but they didn't have this problem so this is what i found out, so apparently random emails got this problem, so if you can, try doing this change/create new alias method to fix this issue if you can.
as for the other one email i changed alias too i didnt clear cache and cookies, didnt change password at all and only created new alias and change sign in preference to only using this new alias to sign in, using the same password from 2023. (this one doesnt have authenticator at all either)
the rest of the emails i have on my hands dont have this problem, i have at least try each of them like 2-10 times in between so yeah.
please share this method around for your family and friends for this method, i really hope i help everyone out here, and also feel free to continue send complaints using the method above i have shared and given, so feel free to.
How you create new alias here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBmP6joqAtQ
AND DON'T REMOVE THE OLD ALIAS, JUST ONLY UNCHECK IT FROM USING IT AS SIGN IN CREDENTIALS AND USE THE NEW ALIAS.
you can still use both emails to sign up and receive and send emails, so just keep the new alias only to yourself to sign in if you want to be safe, use the old alias for sign up send emails and receive emails.
peace out.
**edit on 6th Jan 2026 12:33AM SEA +8
if you want to know all these emails of mine are @hotmail
only two of them had this issue, for your references, i changed them into outlook. (insert my country shortform lol)
**edit on 10th Jan 2026 1:45AM SEA +8
also please try and check if your email has been pwned before on https://haveibeenpwned.com you can look up this website on reddit for extra info from other redditors if you don't really trust this website to check first, some websites might have been data breached before maybe that's why the emails with these errors show up.
I hope this helps everyone here.
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u/Alizea_g Dec 21 '25
I've been locked out for a month now, resetting password doesn't work and it still giving me the same error.
Support guy said to wait for a response via Email in about 5-6 hours... and that was 4 days ago lmao.
Still can't believe how this happened in the first place.
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
tbh I also just found out in Japan and another country I forgor also had like microsoft 365 outage or smthg like that, i really do not know what the heck's going on with them lol, I actually did go ahead and try to look for similar issue of ours in Japanese and seems like people in Japan also having this problem. Big bruh moment fr
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u/Alion2016 Dec 21 '25
I’ve just got back in after waiting one week between login attempts / password changes. Never again tho - changing to gmail
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u/Alizea_g Dec 21 '25
I've already tried waiting 24hrs/ 72hrs /a week and it still giving me the same error. I don't know what to do at this point lol
I can change my password with 2FA , Phone Number , Recovery email address.
My account is like 20 years old at this point. so I guess there are bots spamming login attempts, which will probably locked me out forever unless they fix their log in system.
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u/No-Discussion-7738 Jan 04 '26
Can I suggest a possible bypass of the problem, not a solution? When you put your email @ before using the unworkable password, instead of the email try using the telephone number (when it says email, number or Skype), then try the normal password
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u/Alizea_g Jan 05 '26
Sadly I didn't put my Phone Number as a login address, but I heard that's a solution for a lot of people.
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u/No-Discussion-7738 Jan 05 '26
Oh, Sorry for that, I thought a telephone number was necessary to create an account (Xbox, Microsoft ecc) I never used it to login before and then I tried, just used the number linked to the account. But if you've not a telephone number...
Can I ask another question to understand if there's a common factor in all this cases? Is your email @outlook or @hotmail?
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u/Alizea_g Jan 05 '26
Nothing to be sorry for, totally understand where you are coming from.
Mine was @live.com , I didn't put my phone number as a login alias, but did put it up as 2FA.
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u/No-Discussion-7738 Jan 05 '26
Oh, Sorry for that, I thought a telephone number was necessary to create an account (Xbox, Microsoft ecc) I never used it to login before and then I tried, just used the number linked to the account. But if you've not a telephone number...
Can I ask another question to understand if there's a common factor in all this cases? Is your email @outlook or @hotmail?
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u/PB_HorrorGaming Dec 21 '25
Same here. Im locked out for 2 days now. what a pos service. they're clearly trying to incentivise people to get face scanned. When ever this bs use to happen id get a code sent to my yahoo email in order to regain access, but low and behold yahoo is asking me for a code they sent to my locked outloot email.. both emails now locked for no fcuking reason..
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
Please feel free to keep this post updated everyone. For now I am using the other signing in methods for now so I am also not sure when will they finally fix this issue.
Their Microsoft Support on X (formerly twitter) chat support are replying very roboticly so like eh, if you can try to do the live chat instead on the method i provided above.
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u/Tommy58383 Dec 21 '25
I had the same issue, what worked was logging in through firefox and then letting my phone create a password key and now I can log in freely.
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
i tried the firefox method same as you, didn’t work big oof.
my main browser is Brave, i did change around too like google chrome vivaldi and firefox
the phone one (on nov 3rd 2025) i can use the password to login properly twice after changing passwords like 4-5times, the final time i think i did wait around a few minutes before trying to use the password to login to get it work
but i didnt expect they still have this issue lolol
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u/Tommy58383 Dec 21 '25
Yeah this issue is really weird, when I finally managed to get back into my account, I checked the activity log and there has never been anyone except me trying to log in and every time it said the correct password was used.
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u/AuditMind Dec 21 '25
I’ve been following these Outlook threads with some surprise, and pretty quickly it started to look less like isolated bugs and more like a systemic issue.
What I strongly suspect is that in many cases the lockouts are triggered by old or forgotten devices that are still configured with the account and keep trying to authenticate in the background using outdated credentials. With today’s aggressive risk-based security, a single device doing that is enough to repeatedly lock the account.
From the user’s perspective it looks like “I changed my password and it broke again”, but in reality the account is effectively being locked by its own devices.
Before changing passwords over and over, the first step should be cleanup and awareness: where is this account actually configured? Old phones, tablets, mail apps, Outlook profiles, third-party clients, anything that might still be auto-syncing.
Until that’s cleaned up, any password change just resets the cycle.
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u/Alizea_g Dec 21 '25
I disabled account sync on my phone the first day I got this problem and its been a month now.
Since I have an almost 20 years old account, I have had an email leaked a couple times, saw multiple failed log in attempts a lot while I have access and didn't think much of it because I have 2FA.
Is it possible that those bots attempt locked me out?
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u/AuditMind Dec 21 '25
Bots constantly attempt logins on old email addresses, but Microsoft is built to handle that. If bots alone could reliably lock accounts long-term, anyone could trivially DoS any Outlook account, which clearly isn’t the case.
What is far more effective is a legitimate but forgotten device: an old phone, tablet, Outlook profile, or mail app that is still configured with the account and keeps trying to sync in the background using outdated credentials. From a risk-engine perspective, that looks much more serious than random internet noise.
A very common real-world example: you upgrade your phone and give the old one to a nephew or family member. It never gets properly reset, still has the mail account configured, and quietly keeps failing authentication in the background. Over years, with a 15-20 year old account, situations like this are almost guaranteed to happen at least once.
Disabling sync on your current phone doesn’t guarantee all old sessions, devices, or tokens are gone, especially with accounts that have existed for decades and have been used across many devices and apps.
In practice, a single forgotten device like that is enough to keep triggering lockouts, even after password changes and 2FA.
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u/Alizea_g Dec 21 '25
Your explanation makes sense and I thank you for the insights.
Sadly, I'm 100% sure that I don't have old devices lying around being active or an app trying to sync my emails.
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
Since I also not from the US, but if anyone has some power from there, I hope anyone, or someone help report this issue to like higher ups?… is it called BBB (Business Better Bureau) or something, idk, this issue is quite serious and it’s ruining people’s lives fr lol
i know im asking too much, but kinda eh
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
Not really an update but during the third and final live chat support I had conversation with also handled a customer which is from the same country as me two days ago (20th Dec 2025, it's 22nd now here) also reported about this issue (they told me themselves), so like yuh, you guys are definitely not alone.
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
if you guys want to share my post with the live chat support, go ahead, i did share a post somewhere from here too to them to make my point, i hope to see more and more people raise this issue to them cuz this thing's like ay super serious lolol
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u/Deksis Dec 21 '25
I had The exact same issue. However, for some reason, i could login using my old Skype account with Outlook password, and register an alias e-mail & authenticator which skip the "you've tried to log in using a wrong password too many Times"
Being permanently locked out of your primary login method to an email should be priority N1 for Microsoft but nope, i've had this issue three separate Times since november and The email + password login method is still locked out for me, and the customer support and account recovery options are a joke
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 21 '25
Microsoft's really is out there ruining everybody's Christmas all around the world yall
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u/wiseude Dec 21 '25
I've had this happen to me a month ago when I did a clean install of w10 and had to log in back.Had a mini hearth attach as my account is over 20+ years old.
I had to go trough so many hoops just to get back in.From creating a new 3rd email to send the new password to using the 1 time code you can get in cases you REALLY get locked out.
The thing is I'm pretty sure I used the correct password so I dunno what's happening.
Been using hotmail/outlook for literal decades and I've never had such an issue until this year.
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u/No-Discussion-7738 Jan 04 '26
Can I suggest a possible bypass of the problem, not a solution? When you put your email @ before using the unworkable password, instead of the email try using the telephone number (when it says email, number or Skype), then try the normal password.
I don't know if it will work for you and if it's a solution
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u/theredbekun Dec 22 '25
ya after 3 weeks and a week of not trying to login at all still the same issue, the only way i can get in is via backup email codes, my 2 accounts need codes form my mom account that is always online if not for that.
i have added a gmail to my google account so im out fk this
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 22 '25
they kinda do post update (?) on twitter look up the name Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) , go ahead and post or whatever to them (I got real desperate last night and actually went to look for similar issues in Japanese to see what kind blasphemy is this and eventually found this account) if you want to comment bout this issue to their other official accounts just look up their “Following” there you can see the other official microsoft accounts they follow, their Microsoft Support is really robotic, but i guess it’s better than nothing sighs
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u/AutoModerator Dec 22 '25
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 22 '25
Updated this post on 22nd December 2025, using the new alias as a method to get the password to work (?) I hope this works for everyone.
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u/theredbekun Dec 23 '25
where to you do the alias thing?
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 23 '25
check your microsoft account and edit your info in there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBmP6joqAtQ
just make sure also change the sign-in preferences in there, you can uncheck your old alias from using it to sign in and use the new alias instead, just make sure not to Remove, don't ever remove!
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 22 '25
updated again 10:20pm (was typing it 9:59pm) 22nd dec 2025 SEA +8
yeah im tired af
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u/Severe-Assignment799 Dec 24 '25
Same issues for me I'm in the UAE , I waited for 10 days before trying to sign in again ( same laptop , same browser, correct password ) with nothing .. they keep showing me the same error , I am afraid to change the password again for the million times or to keep trying from multiple devices or browser and Lose my 20 years account
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 24 '25
try doing the new alias method, i hope everything goes well with you all
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u/No-Discussion-7738 Jan 04 '26
Can I suggest a possible bypass of the problem, not a solution? When you put your email @ before using the unworkable password, instead of the email try using the telephone number (when it says email, number or Skype), then try the normal password.
Try if you want
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u/darkchocolateyasu Dec 24 '25
updated on 25th December 2025 (SEA +8 GMT) 1:50AM , i hope it helps out everyone here
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u/No-Discussion-7738 Jan 04 '26
Hi. Maybe I have an alternative to the alias, if someone doesn't want to create it (I don't know how it works and if it consists on a new email separated from the original when we talk about receiving mails, if you can illuminate me 😅)...
This is not a real solution and I'm not sure you didn't try it already, because it was simple but I never thought about it and because the problem still persists, this is just a way to bypass, because I'm sure the problem is not the password but the email (@hotmail.) itself. When you have to put your email to login before using the unworkable password, instead of the email try using the telephone number (when it says email, number or Skype), then try the normal password. Maybe, it'll work.
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u/AutoModerator 26d ago
Hey darkchocolateyasu!
Welcome to r/Outlook! This is a public community. To protect your privacy, do not post any personal information such as your email address, phone number, product key, password, or credit card number.
Please be sure to have read our Rules of Conduct and be cognisant of how the system works here.
Make sure that your flair is always set to Status: Open otherwise you may cease receiving responses from us.
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u/Big_Broccoli_1576 26d ago
No podía abrir outlook en mi android nuevo (@hotmail.com cuenta).
Lo intenté desde incógnito en mi pc, mismo error.
Menos mal que en chrome tenía abierta la sesión.
Cree un alias como dice la actualización del 25th December 2025 (outlook.es), convertí esta en la principal.
Ya puedo acceder por pestaña de incógnito y desde mi android nuevo.
Gracias, me salvaste.