Message says "The Microsoft account doesn't exist. Enter a different account or get a new one."

Question

I am trying to sign in to a new computer using my Microsoft account. I know the account is valid because it is the same one I am using in this forum. But, I get a message saying "The Microsoft account doesn't exist. Enter a different account or get a new one." What do I do?

By the way, I have no idea what I'm supposed to enter in the "Tags" field below. There is nothing that tells me what types of things I can enter. That is frustrating because the field is required.

Answer 1

I have the same problem. I used to be able to create an account in the organization's Office365 Admin page for a user and then immediately login into a new PC that I'm preparing for that user and configure it. As Windows says during config 'One account for everything'... That is no longer true, I have to jump trough hoops and create a 'personal' account meaning that I'm acting in the name of the user which I really don't like but it was totally fine for a professional account.

I can also use a dummy Microsoft account to initialize the PC and then create a local account afterward to eliminate the dummy account and end up with no Microsoft account for the PC.

It also used to be possible not to connect to the internet and directly create a local account but that doesn't seem possible anymore, at least in Windows 11.

Answer 2

I had deactivated all possible Settings in Privacy settings.
Then the Problem was gone on Windows.
I do not know how they are translated in English it was something like "experience online content"

I am not using Outlook anymore......On Mac the Search function also was not working.

Answer 3

I worked around it.. I have my phone number setup in my account, so instead of email, I used my phone number. It then asked me to create a password so I backed out thinking it wouldnt work. I then tried my email and the system worked.

Dont know if that is the work around..but something clicked for me to get by it didnt recognize me

Answer 4

This is madness, I enter an email address and the setup says that the account does not exist, so I click on "create a new one" which takes me to the create account screen with the email address pre populated where it then says that the account already exists and I should use it to log in !! Madness.

Anyway, the shortcut to making a local login is to use Shift-F10 to get to the command prompt and there issue an ipconfig /release which will disconnect the device from the network. Then when you go back to the MS login screen and hit the back arrow it goes to the local account creation screen.

Answer 5

After wondering about this myself, I finally found the answer. I'll summarize the best I can, but the link is below should you want to read for yourself. Microsoft basically boils their accounts down to two categories... first: Personal and second: Work or School... you have a unique Identity that must be authenticated regardless of which category account you have. The difference between the two is that Microsoft handles identity authentication and authorization over Personal (consumer) accounts but on the business/school side there are options to handle this separately. Microsoft used to let one username (email address) be tied to both personal and business/school accounts but it caused great confusion because now personal and work identities and subsequent applications were co-mingling and resulted in Microsoft separating them... They could do a better job at clarifying this when the error message is displayed. I have both account types, as many of us do, but I had to use my personal Microsoft account when setting up my new work PC... not ideal. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/itops-talk-blog/what-s-the-difference-between-a-personal-microsoft-account-and-a/ba-p/2241897