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How do I take back my personal Microsoft account so that I can use it with Teams?

Copper Contributor

I left my last employer back in March (yep, March, sigh), and since then haven't been able to use Teams.  I get the dreaded "Someone has already set up Teams for your organization" error despite the account I'm using being my own personal Microsoft account.  I even own the domain of the email address I use with my personal Microsoft account!

 

I think the mistake I made was to use my own personal Microsoft account from my work computer when I was still working there, so now that account appears to be somehow associated with my former employer's O365 subscription, I'm assuming.

 

I've called the head of IT at my former employer, and he made sure to remove my license from their O365 subscription, and deleted my work accounts.  Yet still, I get the "Someone has already set up Teams for your organization", gah!

 

Others have suggested using a different account or email address, but I already use it for OneNote and OneDrive, and it would be awkward to use a different account just for Teams.

 

How do I convince Teams to let me use my personal Microsoft account?

 

Thanks,

Alain.

4 Replies
best response confirmed by ThereseSolimeno (Microsoft)
Solution

@agaudrault Hi, I've no idea what else you've been trying to sort this out. But these are the most common scenarios and resolutions for that message https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/troubleshoot/teams-sign-in/someone-has-already-setup...

 

The first step I would suggest you've already done, that is removing your account completely from the org. Other than that see the above link.

@ChristianBergstromThank you for your help.  I did come across the post you linked to.  The first two causes it lists, as you guessed, I've already addressed by getting IT to remove me completely from their systems.  The third cause suggests that I'm "trying to sign up for your work account by using a free tenant", which I can't say I understand.  What is a free tenant?  And I'm certainly not trying to sign up for my work account, since I'm strictly trying to use my personal account and email address.

 

I logged into my Microsoft account, and went through all the menus to see whether there was any way to configure access to Teams, and could find no references to Teams at all.  Is there any way to diagnose exactly why my Microsoft account is unable to let me use Teams?

@agaudrault Sounds odd. Have you tried InPrivate / Incognito when going to https://teams.microsoft.com as well? And are you sure your work account is permanently deleted? Any chance your personal Microsoft account could be a guest user? Use InPrivate mode and follow the instructions here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/external-identities/leave-the-organization

 

See this as well https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/leave-a-teams-free-organization-a8fd9675-fb0c-4e64-81a5-c... (the "member part").

 

To answer your question there's a Teams Free available. Meaning you can set up an own org. with your personal account. You can read more about it here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/welcome-to-microsoft-teams-free-6d79a648-6913-4696-9237-e...

 

Hope it helps, because I'm running out of suggestions.

Thanks for leads, @ChristianBergstrom 

 

I tried the "leave-the-organization" link you provided, but did not see anything like what was described.  After a lot of clicking around, I found an Access Panel that had a link to "Leave organization" next to a "Default Directory" (see screenshot).  I clicked the link, and after confirming that I really wanted to do so, I get a generic error (see other screenshot).

 

I did try to sign up for Teams Free, but when I use my microsoft account to do so, I get the error "microsoft@gaudrault.net hasn't been added to your organization's directory. Contact your admin or try a different email." <sigh>  But I don't have an "admin", it's just me!  Any thoughts on how to fix my account so that I can use Teams?

 

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1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by ThereseSolimeno (Microsoft)
Solution

@agaudrault Hi, I've no idea what else you've been trying to sort this out. But these are the most common scenarios and resolutions for that message https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/troubleshoot/teams-sign-in/someone-has-already-setup...

 

The first step I would suggest you've already done, that is removing your account completely from the org. Other than that see the above link.

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