Account locked "We cannot send a text message to this number"

[marco605]

My personal account has been locked after I replied to an email on April 6th, 2023. 

Nothing special about it, just a regular email.

I was prompted to verify my account. I did and was successful. I tried again to reply. Again I was blocked. Again I was able to unlock my account with the verification code.

Then, again, my account was locked again as soon as I replied to an email, but this time I keep getting that hateful message "We cannot send a text message to this number", no matter what phone number I use, or device, or browser. On some occasions, on different portals I get a different message "too many attempts, try again tomorrow". I did. Still failed.

There is no contact number, there is no support. The account is old (since 2006) and it is the base of most of my online ID. I even had to revert to use my business account to write this.

Now what? This is not fair!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Self Fixed

[#3]

Hi Marco, I'm having this same isssue you've mentioned with my personal Microsoft account, including the login after the first block and the account getting blocked again after sending the same email that triggered the first block. What do you mean with "Self fixed"? Did you fix it yourself, or did it fix itself? In case you fixed it yourself, could you tell me which steps did you follow to do it? Thanks in advance!

[#4]

@NahueARG 

After more than 24 hours since my initial lock, I carefully went through this page.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/unblock-my-outlook-com-account-f4ad2701-d166-4d8b-8a6a-9a...

I didn't have much hope and went through the link where it says If you still can't unblock your account by entering the security code or changing your password, go to When you can't sign in to your Microsoft account.

Then, in the next page, I went through the sentence where it says: If you get a message from Microsoft that says your account is locked, use our automated self-help to help you unlock your account, and connect you to a support agent if necessary.

Finally I was prompted to fill in a form, with some questions about my account usage. Filled in. Got a generic response sounding like "we'll see you in few weeks, maybe, if we like, otherwise fu*k you"

After like..10-20 minutes tried the dumb login again and a SMS finally landed on my phone... Was it the form? I don't know. There was no positive feedback whatsoever about it. Might be! Was it a timer? was it a counter? Who knows? Not even Bill Gates&co themselves.

Happy having my personal account back, but frankly I find the way Microsoft manages personal accounts totally worrisome. Should migrate to smaller companies where you can get in touch with a person who can solve the issue. Big talking about AI... results? basic functions suck!

[#5]

Hi @marco605, thank you for answering!

I tried following your steps but I don't see where's the form you were prompted to fill in, do you have the link for it? I ended up chatting with a Microsoft support agent but after 40 minutes of talking the answer I got was "Wait 24-72 hours till we reach out to you with an update on your case" and that's it, I still have no access to my account.

And I agree with you, this is really frustrating, I'm thinking of migrating to another company if this doesn't get fixed in the next 24 hours.

[#6]

@NahueARG 

At the time, I went through the page and went through several links till I was prompted with that questionnaire.

Anyway, now I can tell you it was not the questionnaire, because this morning (8 days later, problem fixed already), I just received the feedback about that form I filled in. They sent couple of conflicting mails, one saying your case number is xxxxx and then another saying "we can't do anything for you, try the questionnaire again"... They did not even notice the whole thing was fixed for my account.

So I can tell you... yep it is based on sheer luck.

They are not even able to explain what exactly is triggering this issue. Is it a timer? is it a counter? Is it a combination? No one really knows. Someone believes it's time, someone says it a number of tried logons in a given time (no metric known), someone is ready to swear on their family "it must be the cookies", someone else says it's the browser, others blamed the IP, people report the need to change the device, others blame the OS, anyone says it's due on whatever they like, "is it raining today? ehhh then you can't fix it", "did you see a black cat? ehhhh can't fix it for a week from now at least, unless you see a badger meanwhile... then..."... basically superstitions and rituals. Nothing works "exactly for everyone". They lost control of the login system. There is no human who can do anything about it nor there is a valid process. Microsoft basically says "try again later, maybe it works, maybe not, we dunno".

As frustrating as it is, that's it really.