Forum Discussion
Suddenly cannot login to MS Teams desktop app -- stuck in infinite login loop
- Aug 07, 2020
I was finally able to resolve this, although I'm not sure what exactly I did that worked.
I realized that somehow I have TWO Microsoft accounts under the same email address (how Microsoft could allow this, I have no idea). In Windows settings, I clicked on Account > Email & accounts. I saw both accounts listed there - one said "Work or school account" and one said "Personal account created by you" or something like that. The "personal account" is the one that I use to sign in to Teams, but I suspect Teams was trying to use the "Work or school account."
So I clicked the option to remove / sign out of the "personal" account, and then for the "Work or school account" I clicked Manage as there was no option to remove it. That opened up a page in my browser where I signed in to this other "bad" Microsoft account.
It was at this point I realized that this "bad" account somehow was created when I purchased an Office365 subscription earlier this year (rather than my existing account being used). Again, I have no idea how this could have happened or how to combine the two accounts...but that's a different issue.
Anyway, once logged in here, I clicked the "Sign out of everything everywhere" option and then waited an hour or so.
I tried logging into Teams, and after some weirdness like being asked for my email address twice, being told my password was incorrect, but then accepting it on a re-try (no I didn't typo it), finally...IT WORKED!
I'm not sure if deleting the account from my computer or signing out from the web portal was what did it, or some combination thereof, but hopefully this helps anyone else who might encounter this nightmare.
Hi bsidm
Have you by any chance recently signed up to another variant of Teams, such as the Free version using the same email/upn as what you do for your Org Teams?
Just seem to me that something else is trying to hijack that login in terms of Teams.
How does it play out in the web version: https://teams.microsoft.com
Thanks
Henry
- bsidmJul 31, 2020Brass Contributor
HenryPhillipsNimbitech On the mobile app, in the main menu at the bottom under "Accounts & Orgs", my email address is listed twice, once under my company name and once under "Personal". So I guess I do have two accounts (not sure how), but I haven't set up a new account with Microsoft for months and months. Where would I go from here?
- HenryPhillipsNimbitechAug 01, 2020Bronze ContributorHi, Not sure the reason for it not working but in terms of the mobile app example I too have a couple of orgs, one the full Teams Org if you will and the other as part of the new personal experience . Both of which are showing under the same account name.
So for me this makes sense because I have a GMAIL account that was used against the Free version of Teams. As not a Microsoft account, at setup stage this would have essentially created a Microsoft account using GMAIL email as login.
I then have that same GMail account used against a personal setup of Teams.
So it is either being hijacked by incorrect login details or you need to basically go into your Microsoft account and change the primary email to be that of something different to your org email.
Thanks
Henry- bsidmAug 03, 2020Brass Contributor
HenryPhillipsNimbitech I only have ONE org. I am not a part of any other. And what is meant by "new personal experience"?
Also, my Microsoft account is not under a Gmail or other free mail account. It is under my company email account.
HenryPhillipsNimbitech wrote:
So it is either being hijacked by incorrect login details or you need to basically go into your Microsoft account and change the primary email to be that of something different to your org email.I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're suggesting. My Microsoft account has only ever been under my work email address. I don't want to change it to anything else. Both "accounts" visible in Teams that I referenced in my previous message reflect the same email address.
I will say I have never experienced as much frustration with user account management with any other service as I have with Microsoft. Constantly having to choose whether my account is set up by an organization or is a personal account set up by me (why am I always asked this?), frequently being redirected, signed in then signed out, switching to my "other" account (I don't even know what my other account is?)...and then literally having no one I can turn to to try to straighten all of this stuff out. No support, no number I can call, no help documentation...It is maddening and at times downright comical how convoluted and unintuitive the Microsoft account system is. Maybe I've done something wrong with my account setup, but it simply shouldn't be this difficult!