Windows laptop locked by administrator after using Find My Device.

Question

Windows laptop locked by administrator after using Find My Device.

Mark 0

Hello Microsoft Support,

I accidentally used the Find My Device feature on my personal Acer Windows 11 laptop and selected the Lock option.

After that, my laptop started displaying:

"This device is locked by an administrator. Have any of the administrators sign in to unlock it."

I have only one administrator account, which is my personal Microsoft account. I have tried:

Restarting the laptop.
Connecting to Wi-Fi.
Starting Windows Safe Mode using Startup Settings (option 4).
Signing in with my original Microsoft account password.

None of these methods worked.

I also checked my Microsoft account's BitLocker recovery keys page, but no recovery keys are listed.

My laptop contains important personal files, engineering projects, programming code and college documents.

I need assistance removing the remote Find My Device lock and restoring access without losing my local data.

Please escalate this issue to the appropriate Windows technical support team.

Thank you.

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1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Welcome Mark,

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm sorry you've been locked out of your laptop. I understand how worrying this is when your college and project files are on it.

To help narrow this down, could you please tell me:

On the lock screen, do you see your account tile, an "Other user" option, or only the administrator message?
Did you sign in to Windows with a "PIN" or a "Password" before the lock?
Have you changed or reset your Microsoft account password since you used the Lock option?

In the meantime, please try these steps:

Step 1: Make sure the laptop is online before you sign in

On the lock screen, select the "Network" icon in the bottom-right corner and connect to Wi-Fi. If Wi-Fi doesn't connect there, use an Ethernet cable or USB tethering from your phone.

Step 2: Sign in with your full Microsoft account email and password, not a PIN If you see "Other user" in the bottom-left corner, select it. Type the full email address of your Microsoft account and its password. If only a PIN box appears, select "Sign-in options" and choose the "Password" (key) icon.

Step 3: Reset your Microsoft account password from another device

Go to https://account.live.com/password/reset and set a new password. Wait about 5–10 minutes. Then, with the laptop still online, sign in using "Other user" with your email address and the new password.

Step 4: Confirm the laptop is linked to the same account

Go to https://account.microsoft.com/devices and check that your Acer laptop appears there. Make sure you're signing in on the laptop with the same account you used to send the lock.

Looking forward to your update.