Locked Microsoft family account with no recovery or verification options

"When a user needs to perform an account operation, the standard process is to use security verification methods and account recovery forms. This is hard for anyone to accept, but I hope the information I provided above will give you a better understanding of your Microsoft account security strategy."

I understand and accept this in principle. It's the same for most organisations. The issue is that for over two months Microsoft hasn't allowed a phone number to be used for verification or offered any other method. The account recovery process did not do anything either.

So the standard process you describe is broken and is clearly not a priority for Microsoft to fix.

Hi, Alasdair G.

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft Community.



From your description, I understand that your son's Microsoft account is locked. When you try to unlock it, you are prompted that this method does not work and ask you to use other methods, but you do not have other verification methods. I understand your confusion about this problem.



This is a friendly explanation: We are just members of the Microsoft community. We have no right to access your account information or do anything with your account.

The Microsoft community only provides technical skills and does not perform account recovery.



If the account holder violates our Microsoft Service Agreement, the Microsoft account will usually be locked.

The Microsoft support page has information about Microsoft unlocking and the reasons for being locked. I think you can visit the following link to view it:

Account has been locked - Microsoft Support



The Microsoft support page has information about not receiving the verification code. You can visit the following link to operate:

Troubleshooting verification code issues - Microsoft Support



Regarding your experience, I really want to help you unlock your account immediately. But please understand that the Microsoft account is managed by a fully automated server and no one can access it manually. All security information in the account is managed by cloud services.



When a user needs to perform an account operation, the standard process is to use security verification methods and account recovery forms.

This is hard for anyone to accept, but I hope the information I provided above will give you a better understanding of your Microsoft account security strategy.



When using other Microsoft accounts in the future, you can regularly check the security settings of your account, add multiple verification methods, and ensure that the recovery email and phone information are up to date. If there is a similar problem in the future, at least we can recover quickly through these methods.



We look forward to hearing from you!



Best Regards.

Capoo - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hi, Alasdair G.

Thanks for your reply.



First of all, thank you for your understanding.

You are right, whoever encounters this problem will feel the same.



The suggestion I mentioned before is that Microsoft has two or more security verification methods. When one of them does not work, we can at least use another method for verification.



But unfortunately, even if you use a phone number in another region, you still cannot receive the verification message. I feel sorry for your experience.



I hope that if users encounter similar problems in the future, they can share their experiences and insights below.



You can visit the following link to report this issue to Microsoft:

Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support

Best Regards.

Capoo - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hi Matthew. My name is Kyle and I'm an independent advisor.

Microsoft Support cannot assist with account recovery, the account recovery form is the only option. If two-step verification is enabled, then I'm afraid it will not be possible to recover the account.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused by this. Please reach back if you have further questions.

Thanks,
Kyle

Hi there! My name is Darhyl and I’d be more than happy to help you with your query.

I'm sorry you are experiencing this with your Microsoft account.

Unfortunately, the account recovery web form is the only option to recover a Microsoft account.

If the account has the 2-step verification feature enabled, I'm afraid the account recovery web form will not work and the only way to regain access to the account is to have access to the phone number associated with the 2-step verification.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding! Please feel free to let me know if you need anything else.

Best Regards,
Darhyl