How can "you are not authenticated" be removed from the Community Website

Question

How can "you are not authenticated" be removed from the Community Website

NeilFitzjames-0675 0

I am a long-term member. Twice in my recent questions this error message has prevented me responding with a positive response to members who have provided helpful suggestions.. I have tried the "Help" suggestions "refresh page, log out or use a different browser" . Still this "authentication error message persists". I see no need for it -it is hindering the intended questions, answers and comments in the community. Moderator presumably you can override "authentication" so please if you cannot disable "authentication" pass on my response to Hendix V to him -see below

Thanks Hendrix V

a) I should have mentioned I had been unable to import from a backup my old Rules so was trying to create a Rule from scratch.

I tried your suggestion of only 2 conditions -it worked. I then tried 3 conditions -it worked.

I think maybe a problem was that I had been selecting “where my name in the To or cc box”

Despite it not being an option My mindset was thinking bcc

Many of my emails are from Professional organisations and come to me as bcc.

Would that have been an error factor?

Thanks for your help re Rules

They still seem to require "Run Rules Now" to operate rather than automatically.

b) Ref Duplicate emails you were correct. In Google Gmail Setting I unticked 2 boxes re Send and Archive which seems to have worked.

A pain for me but as a positive my knowledge is improving.

Thanks again. I tried to answer you with a) last night but the nuisance error message "you are not authenticated " kept preventing me from replying. Tonight I followed one of its possible "cures" and tried logging into the Community using Google rather than Edge but despite following Security protocols could not get to the same screen with my posts. I fail to see the rationale behind introduction of the "authentication" as I am replying to an answer to my initial posted question. It is time consuming and non productive in preventing replies to posts

Neil D 34,660 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T10:12:02.7666667+00:00

You will need to provide a link to the thread or threads you are referring to. Even as a mod I have no idea what questions you have posted.

There are some instances when the Q&A forum is having problems in general (which are soon fixed) you may have to wait a while and try again.

2 answers

Your answer

Neil D 34,660 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-30T10:12:02.7666667+00:00

You will need to provide a link to the thread or threads you are referring to. Even as a mod I have no idea what questions you have posted.

There are some instances when the Q&A forum is having problems in general (which are soon fixed) you may have to wait a while and try again.

Answer 1

This is usually a temporary session or authentication issue in the community portal, not something that can be removed by a moderator per reply.

Since refresh, sign-out, and trying another browser were already tried, the remaining supported checks are:

Try an InPrivate/Incognito window.
Clear browser cache and cookies.
Verify the issue happens for both:
- replies to existing threads
- new questions/posts
Make sure the correct account is signed in and the community profile is fully registered.
Capture a screenshot of the full error message.
Note the browser and version.

There is also a known bug that can randomly affect certain tags in Microsoft Q&A. If the problem is tag-specific, posting under Community Center tags can be used as a workaround and then moved to the appropriate category.

If the thread was affected by site migration or became locked during migration, posting the question again with a reference to the older thread may be necessary.

References:

Answer 2

Stefan Blom 357.2K MVP Volunteer Moderator

If the problem occurs with particular threads, please post links to those threads.

More likely, though, you have run into the intermittent issue when, suddenly, re-authentication is required. Just sign back in to your account in the forum. I haven't noticed any pattern, but it does happen from time to time. I don't know if there is an "official" explanation from Microsoft. My own experience suggests that keeping multiple browser windows open together with a longer period of inactivity (in some of those windows) seems to sign me out of the forum.

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