Locked Out of Your Microsoft Account, Outlook or Windows? Recovery in Plain English

Locked out of your Microsoft account, your email, or the PC itself? These pages cover the recovery half only: the blocked-account form done properly, verification codes that never arrive, a forgotten PIN, an old Hotmail account, a lost phone for two-step verification, and the rest of the sign-in failures, each with the exact steps to get back in.

All articles in this cluster

• Microsoft Account Blocked or Locked: The Recovery Form, Done Properly
• Verification Code Not Arriving: Email, Text and Authenticator Fixes
• Forgot Your Windows PIN? PIN vs Password, and Getting Back In
• Recovering an Old Hotmail Account You Haven't Used in Years
• Two-Step Verification When You've Lost or Replaced Your Phone
• 'Too Many Requests' on Your Microsoft Account: Stop and Wait, Correctly
• Someone Changed Your Account Details: Recovering a Taken-Over Account
• 'The Password Is Incorrect' After an Update: Keyboard and Account-Type Traps
• Outlook.com Won't Let You In: 'Temporarily Blocked' and Sign-In Errors
• Windows Hello Face or Fingerprint Stopped Working