Forum Discussion
bsidm
Jul 30, 2020Brass Contributor
Suddenly cannot login to MS Teams desktop app -- stuck in infinite login loop
I have been using MS Teams (desktop app) for years on my PC at work with no issues. Today when I opened the app, I wasn't signed in automatically. Instead it asked me to select an org. I selected...
- 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.
bsidm
Aug 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!
HenryPhillipsNimbitech
Aug 03, 2020Bronze Contributor
Hi bsidm ,
Sorry I re-read your first post and can see that you say the same account is fine on a different device.
I just know a lot of sign on issues can be due to the same account or seemingly the same account username wise having been used for another version of Teams.
Also your message seemed to suggest that you have been invited to another Org by way of being added as a Guest to another Organisations Team Org but that doesn't seem to be true with what you have said.
The personal experience I was referring to was: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/teams-for-home
However getting back on track you have confirmed that you just have your Work account and are only expecting one Team Org.
Plus you have no issues signing in with the same account to the web version or desktop client on another machine.
I suppose you could try a fresh Windows profile on the machine in question and then see if you can get any further?
Thanks
Henry
- bsidmAug 03, 2020Brass Contributor
HenryPhillipsNimbitech You're suggesting I recreate my entire Windows profile to see if I can get signed into Teams? I appreciate your help thus far, but I really don't have the time to take that drastic of a step at this point. Surely there has to be some way of clearing out my login / profile for Teams without starting from ground zero.
- HenryPhillipsNimbitechAug 03, 2020Bronze ContributorI hear you and would have reacted the same if someone had suggested that to me also. Was just a thought as you say you have already gone down the reinstall and wipe of the appdata route.
I will keep thinking but drawing a blank as to what else to suggest at this stage.
Thanks
Henry- bsidmAug 07, 2020Brass Contributor
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.