Account locked due to suspicious activity and my 2FA is in a circular loop

Question

Account locked due to suspicious activity and my 2FA is in a circular loop

Olivier 0

Hello,

My issue is that both my outlook emails got blocked due to suspicious activity while traveling (only like after 10 days of travel). The thing with my email is that the 2FA from email A is linked to email B and vice versa which means I can not access the code send to the mails.

I read that the recovery form will be ignored completely, still tried it out, but got no response, which made me maybe hope that there might be a chance. But after 3 weeks, I have not gotten a response.

The thing is, knowing both passwords, does not help me either, because I can not log in cause of the 2FA which blocks me completely. After searching for hours through the FAQs, I‘m hoping maybe this thread could help me and recover the emails.

Even being logged in in my computer at home, that one also got locked out, which is kind of annoying, so there is no possibility on logging in again.

The recovery form for email A has been sent in the travel country (China).

The recovery form for email B has been sent from the home country, where I created and use the email. But both have not gotten a response yet.

Additionally, email A has been completely blocked and is showing that logging in by password is not available. With email B, that issue has not occurred yet.

I‘m completely lost and I‘m hoping there might be a solution for it. Also I wanted to note that I never got / looked for a 25 digit recovery code, which makes this even harder to solve. I‘m more frustrated by the fact, that microsoft decides to lock emails due being in another country and doesn‘t even provide any kind of real help in these kind of cases.

The circular loop and not paying attention on getting a 25 digit recovery code is my fault, but locking my mails and not being able to access it with my usual passwords, made me speechless.

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi @Olivier

I’m truly sorry that you have been locked out of both accounts, especially while traveling and despite knowing both passwords.

Since two-step verification is enabled on both accounts and neither verification email is accessible, recovering the accounts may unfortunately be very difficult. A password alone cannot complete the sign-in process, and Microsoft Support or forum members cannot remove two-step verification or manually change the security information.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas only.

If you do not have another available verification method or a previously saved recovery code, the most practical option may be to create a new Microsoft account. When setting it up, please add several independent verification methods, such as Microsoft Authenticator, a phone number, and a separate backup email address.

I understand this is not the answer you were hoping for, and I’m sorry there is no direct method available through the forum to restore access.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

The fastest supported path for the circular 2FA loop between two personal Microsoft accounts is to use a different verification method or replace the security info.

On the sign-in screen, choose a method that is known to work, or choose I don't have any of these to replace the security info.
If the alternate email for one account is the other Microsoft account, use privacy/InPrivate mode so both accounts can stay signed in at the same time:
1. Open one InPrivate window and sign in to the first account.
2. When prompted for the code, leave that window open.
3. Open a second InPrivate window.
4. Sign in to the alternate email account there and retrieve the verification code.
5. Return to the first window and enter the code.
If the account is blocked because of unusual activity while traveling, try a different verification method if one exists, and try a different network.
Stop repeated attempts. Excessive retries can keep the block in place.
Wait before trying again. A day may be enough; if not, wait longer, up to a week.
If traveling triggered the block, access may return after signing in from a trusted device or a usual location.
Use the Microsoft sign-in helper if sign-in still fails: Start

Important details for this scenario:

Knowing the password alone does not bypass a security block or 2FA challenge.
If one account is verifying the other, standard browser sessions can sign one account out when opening the other; InPrivate mode is the documented workaround.
If the account has been flagged for unusual activity or locked for security reasons, verification messages might not go through until the issue is resolved.
If the account shows it has been locked, the supported unlock path is to sign in at https://account.microsoft.com to get a security code.
If the lock screen does not show the Next option, use the aka.ms/ link shown in that window to submit the reinstatement request, then wait for the Microsoft Online Safety review. Do not submit additional requests, because that can slow the response.

References: