SOLVED

Suddenly cannot login to MS Teams desktop app -- stuck in infinite login loop

Brass Contributor

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 our company name (the only "org" I am a part of), and I got

 

<Company Name> 

We're switching you to your other account. It'll just take a moment...

 

After a few moments, I am redirected back to:

 

You've been invited to <Company Name>

Continue

 

I click "Continue" and a separate, blank window opens briefly then closes, then I am looped back into the first screen: "We're switching you to your other account. It'll just take a moment..."

 

There is also a "Sign out" button which allows me to re-enter my email / password, but then immediately takes me to the "You have been invited to..." screen where the cycle of fun begins all over again. (See attached video)

 

How can I troubleshoot this to get signed back in? What "other" account is it referring to?

 

Further troubleshooting info:

 

  • I am able to log in with the same account on my home PC and my iPhone.
  • I am able to log in with the same account in the web browser version.
  • I have tried reinstalling Teams and deleting its entire %APPDATA% folder, but the behavior is still the same.

Checking the logs, I see the following:

 

Thu Jul 30 2020 10:11:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) <13484> -- event -- name: msa_guest_license_error, vdiMode: 0, eventpdclevel: 2, 
Thu Jul 30 2020 10:11:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) <13484> -- event -- errorCode: FailedAuthentication, errorStep: get_skype_license_guest, errorState: guestLicenseError, errorUrl: undefined, status: success, scenario: 14031699-1f0e-4329-be78-26e8480b2fb2, scenarioName: desktop_web_app_error_redirect, name: desktop_web_app_error_redirect, step: start, sequence: 0, delta: 0, scenarioDelta: 0, elapsed: 835105, stepDelta: 0, vdiMode: 0, eventpdclevel: 3, Scenario.Name: desktop_web_app_error_redirect, Scenario.Step: start, Scenario.Status: success,
Thu Jul 30 2020 10:11:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) <13484> -- event -- errorCode: FailedAuthentication, errorStep: get_skype_license_guest, errorState: guestLicenseError, errorUrl: undefined, status: success, scenario: 14031699-1f0e-4329-be78-26e8480b2fb2, scenarioName: desktop_web_app_error_redirect, name: desktop_web_app_error_redirect, step: stop, sequence: 1, delta: 0, scenarioDelta: 0, elapsed: 835105, stepDelta: 0, vdiMode: 0, eventpdclevel: 3, Scenario.Name: desktop_web_app_error_redirect, Scenario.Step: stop, Scenario.Status: success,

 

 

16 Replies

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

Try cleaning the credentials for teams in the credential manager too

@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?

@adam deltinger I removed all Teams related credentials in the Windows Credentials Manager then tried signing in again -- unfortunately no change.

Hi, 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

@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! 

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

@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.

I 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

best response confirmed by ThereseSolimeno (Microsoft)
Solution

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.

@rock4us2 Hey man, I'm sorry for the trouble. Eventually my problem came back, and the previous solution no longer worked. Given that no one on Microsoft's side seems capable of helping, I am resigned to using Teams in the browser.

Hi,
Unfortunatelly that didn't work for me.
But finally I managed to get it back to work by deleting / resetting the IE settings.

Maybe there is someone who is close to a mental meltdown and finds this information useful. ;)

kaot1986_0-1620732238114.png

 

@kaot1986 It's really quite astonishing how many different methods and permutations there are of FUBARing the MS Teams sign-in process! Microsoft has really outdone themselves with this one. :xd: I mean, really!

 

I created a video that shows a 10+ minute (!) process that I have to go through to get signed in on one of my systems. Here is the really funny part -- using the same account, there are no issues signing in to Teams at home!

 

https://youtu.be/SmOeaFxvCus

 

Yes, I have to delete my entire %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams\ folder to end the redirect / infinite sign-in loop fun, and get signed in on my system. EVERY. TIME. 

 

And you will get zero help with this, I'm sure there's no one even remotely associated with Microsoft in a professional capacity who even has this on a radar...just "community members" who suggest that you delete your entire user profile and start over to sidestep Teams' braindead code. 

For months I couldn't get signed in to MS Teams at all. Hours spent browsing and searching for answers led me to last-hope desperation attempts such as clearing cached credentials, deleting Teams's APPDATA, uninstalling/reinstalling, etc. One expert on the MS community help forum suggested I ...

@adam deltinger 

Could you provide a link or instructions on how to do your solution please?

I suspect that many people will have the same "login loop" problem with Microsoft Teams for Windows desktop as I did (using the free version without a license), so I'll take the liberty of describing a solution here:

 

 

I just graduated from university and no longer have access to the Office 365 account the institution provided to us.


However, this university account data was still stored in the Windows settings and became the default login for the Teams desktop client once I started the application (I don't use any other Microsoft account on this system). This, I found, is the cause for my login loop problem.


Of course, I could no longer use my password to log into the university account in the Teams desktop client as this account is no longer active.

 

 

Then I thought I'd click "Use another account or sign up", then "No account? Create one!" as you can't use Teams without a Microsoft account anyway.


But, even though I was able to create a new account using a private e-mail address and could verify it with the security code e-mail from Microsoft, I was then stuck in a perpetual login loop:

 

 

When I tried to login in the Teams desktop client with the newly created account, I got the error message:


"This Microsoft account doesn't exist. Enter a different account or get a new one."

 

When I clicked on "get a new one" and entered the e-mail address for the account I had just created (which supposedly didn't exist), I got the contradictory error message:


"[E-mail address] is already a Microsoft account. Please try a different email address."

 

So I could login neither with the inactive university account nor with the newly created account.

 

 

The solution I found was: you simply have to delete the inactive account from the Windows settings (we're talking Windows 10 or 11 here). The thing is, in the Windows settings, you *can't* use the "Accounts" -> "Email and accounts" menu as there will be no "Remove" option for the inactive account (which happens to be a "Work or school account"). Also, you can't use the "Manage" option as you can't log into an inactive account.

 

Instead, use the Windows settings menu "Accounts" -> "Access work or school". From there, select the inactive account and click "Disconnect". This will delete the account from your system (once you've rebooted, it will also be gone from the Microsoft Edge profiles and anywhere else, in case you're wondering).

 

Once you did that, you should be able to log into your newly created account in the Teams desktop client. No more login loop or contradictory error messages! And you won't have to resort to the less reliable Teams web client (which at least doesn't have the login loop problem, though). Hope this helps some of you out there!

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by ThereseSolimeno (Microsoft)
Solution

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.

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