An error has occured and we can no longer retrieve user information for... Please reenter your credentials for this account

Question

_{Wednesday, March 30, 2016 11:15 AM | 1 vote}

I have started a new thread as the old one seems to have gone stale.

Every so often, say days or a week, Visual Studio 2013 displays a yellow warning triangle against my name saying the above.  It happens on my laptop and my desktop computer.  After retyping my password I log in and can access Teamserver et all.  This problem is so annoying that I have been forced to TURN OFF TWO STEP AUTHJENTICATION as it was taking me too long to have to get a code to my mobile and type it in.  I am often overseas and this becomes really irritating to do every few days.

I have had this problem for as long as I can remember!

Let me be clear, because of this BUG, my account is not as secure as it could be.

Please can someone from Microsoft reply to this problem, even if it is just to say go away, we cannot help you.  I just need to know either way.

Jeff

All replies (5)

_{Thursday, March 31, 2016 7:02 AM}

Dear Jeff,

Welcome to the MSDN forum.

I’m so sorry for the trouble that you met. According to the error message, I found an explanation about this, please have a look at this: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/1097260/an-error-has-occurred-and-we-can-no-longer-retrieve-user-information-for-please-reenter-your-credentials-for-this-account. As Ji [MSFT] said, for security reasons, subscription-based licenses (such as MSDN or Visual Studio Online) can start going stale. If you have not used Visual Studio, have no internet connection, or have stayed signed out for more than a week. Visual Studio will firstly show an error message asking you to re-enter your credentials (which is the message you provided). It looks like by design. How often do you use VS or the error message shows? Did you meet the condition like not use VS for a long time, no internet connection or sign out for a long time, then when you use the VS and the error message show?

If you think it is inconvenient, you could submit this request: http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio. The Visual Studio product team is listening to user voice there. You can send your idea there so the others can vote it. If you submit this suggestion, you might post that link here which will benefit others who has the similar issue, I will vote it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Sara

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_{Thursday, March 31, 2016 10:25 AM}

Dear Sara,

Thank you for the reply.  Regarding a subscription, I have bought VS2013 outright, this is my confusion as I assumed that my TeamServer account came with that therefore I did not have any 'subscription' to go stale.  Is this not the case?

I use VS 'sporadically'  i.e. continually for weeks at a time and then perhaps a month off and varying different intervals in-between.  Having to re-enter my credentials is a slight inconvenience when I don't have 2 step authentication switched on.  When it is switched on it is really infuriating.

Best regards,

Jeff

Jeff

_{Friday, April 1, 2016 7:48 AM}

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for your update.

Firstly, please confirm the validation of your account. I recommend you directly call 1-800-426-9400, Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. (Pacific Time) to speak directly to a Microsoft licensing specialist, and you can get more detail information from there.

If your account is validated, and this issue still occurs, please access this website: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/LoadSubmitFeedbackForm and report this issue to visual studio product team.

Best regards,

Sara

We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
Click HERE to participate the survey.

_{Monday, May 14, 2018 2:01 PM}

This bug has been around for years.   Every morning I have to reauthenticate on the same computer  with the same credentials.   It's hyper annoying.

straightener

_{Sunday, February 24, 2019 2:06 AM}

Just FYI, I'm having the same problem. I try to enter credentials and Visual Studio just shuts. If this is policy, it sucks. I use Visual Studio something like 40 hours a week at work, but rarely at home. I need to learn Vue... which I thought was what the Community Version was for... FYI, the above links were no help.