Cannot create Microsoft account for my child

Question

Cannot create Microsoft account for my child

Anders Matthiassen 0

I'm trying to create and add a new Child Microsoft Account to my own parent account. I have done this before with my oldest kid. But I'm having issues this time.

I have tried to open the family portal, and then clicking "Add family member". This takes me to to page where I can enter my kid's email. After entering my kid's email, I'm told to enter the verification code. But writing this code just gives me an "invalid code" error. I then waited ~10 minutes and asked to re-send the code. I entered the new code but got the same error.

I remember having this exact same issue last year when I also tried to create an account for my kid's email.

I then tried to go around the family settings, and to just create a new account without associating it with my own. I enter the name, country and birthday of my kid. A new verification code is sent, and I enter the code. This time, I get sent to an error page. I have attached an image of the page that I'm sent to.
User's image

What should I do now?

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Answer 1

Emma1-N 14,920 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Welcome Anders Matthiassen,

Thanks for the detailed description and the screenshot. I'm sorry the code keeps being rejected, especially since this worked for your oldest child. The error page says "We ran into a problem. Try again. If it still doesn't work, you can try later."

To help narrow this down, could you tell me:

What kind of email address is your child's? Is it a school email, a Gmail or other provider, or an Outlook.com/Hotmail address?
Has that address ever been used to sign in to a Microsoft service before, for example at school, in Minecraft or in Teams?
Which device and browser are you using? Did you try another browser or device?
Does each code arrive in your child's inbox right away, and are you entering the most recent one?

Looking forward to your update.

Anders Matthiassen 0 Reputation points

2026-11-10T12:10:37.24+00:00

Hi Emma

We are trying with a @gmail address. The account for which the mail belongs to is also a "Child account" managed by my own Google parent account.

The mail is not currently affiliated with any Microsoft products or services. However: the reason for trying to create the Mirosoft account, is for her to associate her Minecraft profile with a new Microsoft account. The game was bought via the Apple store for mobile devices. We did try this before, back in August last year, but faced the exact same issues.

We are using Firefox on Linux mint. Last year/attempt was via Google Chrome on windows 11. I have also tried Safari on an iPad this year and last year.

The code arrived immediately yes. When the code was not accepted after being entered twice, I asked for a new one. But that one never arrived. I assume that there is some sort of rate-limiting in place, and so I waited a while before requesting a new code, which was received almost instant - which also was not accepted, as described in my post.

While writing this post, I attempted again.
Instead of adding a family member, I decided to create the account without the association. And this time it worked.
I was presented with the "prove you are not a robot" step, which I was not shown before. So I assume that was the issue?

My kid is now in my family account and I require no more support.
I consider this issue closed.

Best regards
Anders
Emma1-N 14,920 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-11-11T07:30:39.3833333+00:00

Hello Anders Matthiassen,

Thank you for the detailed update.

I appreciate you sharing the solution that worked for you, as it may help others experiencing a similar issue.

Since everything is now working, we can consider this case closed.