OneDrive Web Account Switcher Fails with AADSTS50020 Despite Successful Authentication

Dark Psyche 0 Reputation points
2026-10-08T05:00:05.58+00:00

Title: OneDrive Web Account Switcher Fails with AADSTS50020 Despite Successful Authentication

 

Product: OneDrive Personal (Web)

 

Issue Summary:

When switching between multiple personal Microsoft accounts using the "Sign in with a different account" option in OneDrive Web, the sign-in process fails with AADSTS50020, even though authentication appears to succeed and the account is actually signed in afterwards.

 

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Sign into OneDrive Personal with Microsoft Account A.
  2. Click the profile icon and select "Sign in with a different account".
  3. Enter Microsoft Account B (personal Outlook.com account).
  4. Enter password.
  5. Confirm "Stay signed in" when prompted.
  6. OneDrive redirects to another sign-in page requesting the email address again.
  7. Enter credentials again.
  8. AADSTS50020 error is displayed.

Expected Result:

OneDrive should switch directly to the selected personal Microsoft account and load its files.

 

Actual Result:

OneDrive redirects from the Microsoft Account sign-in flow to a Microsoft Online/Entra authentication flow and returns an AADSTS50020 error indicating that the personal account is not supported.

 

Observed Behaviour:

  • The issue occurs regardless of which personal Microsoft account is selected.
  • The issue occurs in both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
  • The issue persists after:
    • Clearing browser cache and cookies.
    • Signing out of Chrome’s profile.
    • Using incognito session.
    • Removing saved Microsoft credentials.
    • Removing Microsoft accounts from Windows.
    • Signing out of all Microsoft services.
  • Outlook Web account switching works correctly.
  • OneDrive Web account switching does not.
  • After closing and reopening the browser, OneDrive often loads the account that previously failed, suggesting authentication succeeded but the account-switching workflow failed.

Authentication Flow Observed:

Successful authentication begins at:

login.live.com

 

But then redirects to:

login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/authorize

 

After which the AADSTS50020 error occurs.

This appears to be an issue in the OneDrive Web account-switching flow where a personal Microsoft account is incorrectly handed off to the Microsoft Entra ID authentication pipeline.

 

Impact:

Users with multiple personal Microsoft accounts are unable to reliably switch accounts using the OneDrive Web account switcher and must resort to browser restarts, separate browser profiles, or direct sign-in.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Other
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  1. Kai-H 28,425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-10-08T09:58:11.0766667+00:00

    Hi, Dark Psyche

    Thanks for the detailed testing. Your results suggest the account-switching step is failing rather than the password check, although the redirect alone does not prove a bug: the /common sign-in endpoint can also support personal Microsoft accounts.

    Here are some suggestions you can try:

    After the error appears, open OneDrive again in a new tab without repeating sign-in. Since you’ve found that the selected account sometimes loads afterward, this is worth testing as a temporary workaround. Check the profile email before opening or uploading files.

    For now, use direct sign-in or separate browser profiles, whichever already works reliably for you. These are workarounds, not fixes for the switcher.

    Contact Microsoft Support, select OneDrive, and describe this as a OneDrive Personal web account-switching failure. Include your reproduction steps and the error’s Request ID, Correlation ID, and timestamp privately. Ask for investigation of the second sign-in redirect.

    I wouldn’t repeat cookie cleanup or edit the registry. The published registry fix targets the OneDrive for Business sync app, not this personal web scenario.

    Please be advised that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas.   

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