Cannot change the password on the primary account

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Cannot change the password on the primary account

Mark Ustik 0

We cannot change the password on the primary account. The account contains a .onmicrosoft.com (created when the account was created years ago). This is not an issue related to 'basic' resetting of the password, but instead related to the internal way that the account was created. It cannot be changed during the login process:

You can't reset your own password because you haven't registered for password reset.

If you can't sign in, you must contact your administrator to reset your password for you. After you can sign in again, register for self-service password reset, to make sure that you’re able to reset your own password in the future. If there are no other administrators in your organization, please contact Support.

It cannot be changed by another 'super user' either.

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Answer 1

Rin-L 18,990 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Good day @Mark Ustik,

To better understand what’s happening and guide you more effectively, could you please help clarify a few points:

Are you still able to sign in to the account at all (for example, you still know the current password), or is sign‑in no longer possible?
Could you also confirm whether the affected account currently has any administrator roles assigned, or if it’s a standard user account? If it does have admin rights, is it the only administrator in the tenant, or are there other admins still present?
When you mentioned a “super user,” do you mean a Global Administrator in the organization? You noted that they were also unable to change the password for you. Could you please describe the exact steps they tried? For example, did they attempt the reset from the Microsoft Entra admin center or another admin portal, and what message or behavior did they encounter?
Do you know whether this account is a cloud‑only account, or if it’s synchronized from an on‑premises Active Directory environment?

Whenever you have a moment, please feel free to reply with the details above by leaving a comment under this post. Your answers will help me understand your situation more clearly and gather the right information to support your case.

Thank you again, and I look forward to hearing from you!

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Mark Ustik 0 Reputation points

2026-05-01T14:01:15.9+00:00

We cannot signing using that id, the password is unknown.

User is a Global Administrator in the organization, it was the original user.

(we tried to reset the password with another Global Administrator and that did not work)

It is a cloud only account.
Rin-L 18,990 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-01T14:20:54.3733333+00:00

Thank for your reply @Mark Ustik.

The message you’re seeing simply means this account was never set up with Self‑Service Password Reset or security information in advance. That behavior is expected by design in Microsoft Entra.

To better understand why the admin‑initiated reset isn’t working, could you clarify how the current Global Administrator tried to reset the password?

Was it done through the Microsoft Entra admin center or through the Microsoft 365 admin center? Also, were the standard Microsoft guidance steps followed, such as those in Reset a user's password - Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn or Reset passwords - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn?

If possible, it would really help to know where exactly the process gets stuck and to see a screenshot of the error or message shown during the reset attempt, with any sensitive information hidden. That will give a much clearer picture of what’s blocking the change and help determine the next best step.
Mark Ustik 0 Reputation points

2026-05-01T14:40:01.8133333+00:00

Rin,

We are in a catch-22.

We cannot reset the password of the account owner from another Global Administrator.

Trying to change the password through the login process gives us the setup error.

This appears to be a special case.

Mark

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Cannot change the password on the primary account

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