You already know how important your Microsoft account password is; aside from getting you into Windows every day, it’s used to access services like Microsoft 365, RingCentral, Mimecast, and more. For that reason, if your password isn’t working, it can be a major hassle. If your password isn’t working or you’re locked out of your Microsoft account, don’t despair! Follow the guide below to regain access to your account.

You can use this guide for the following scenarios:

• Your password isn’t working and you want to reset it.
• You know your password, but your account is locked out and you need to unlock it.

1. Navigate to portal.office.com in a web browser (note that you can do this from any computer, not just your work one).
2. Click the link labeled Can’t access your account?
3. Click Work or School Account.
4. In the Get back into your account screen, type your full email address ([email protected]) and enter the characters you see in the image to prove you’re not a robot.
5. Click Next.
6. Select one of the methods on the left and then follow the prompts to verify your identity. Note that during IT Onboarding, we typically set up the Microsoft Authenticator app for this, so you will probably want to choose either Approve a notification on my authenticator app or Enter a code from my authenticator app. However, if you set up two-step authentication to use a phone number instead, you can choose either Text my mobile phone or Call my mobile phone and use your cell phone or RingCentral number (whichever one you used during set up) to complete verification. If you want to double check that these methods are set up correctly, visit http://aka.ms/mysecurityinfo to add or edit sign-in methods.

Once you've verified your identity using one of the available methods, you simply need to type in your new password, then type it in again to confirm it, and then click Finish. Congratulations; your password has been reset, and you should now be able to access your Microsoft account once again!