[SOLVED] Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant won't start.

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NumbrXerr0

NumbrXerr0

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Let me preface this by saying that I've had this issue for 2 years..I've just never cared until PSO2 required me to use the terrible MS Store to even log into the game. So I guess I should probably figure this out..

I am currently unable to log into any Microsoft account on my Windows 10 PC. I am forced to use a local administrator account. Which is normally fine, except when you need to use the MS Store or Xbox App. I've tried going through Microsoft themselves, but all they did was spout the standard troubleshooting steps. Which I did in spades before they even said anything. This was 2 years ago when this issue first popped up and I've tried a few things since. Including a profile repair, making a new account, running the troubleshooter, DISM and SFC, in-place OS upgrade, powershell reinstall of all Windows apps etc.

The service is not running. If I try to start it manually, I get: "Windows could not start the Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant service on Local Computer. Error 0x80070005" If I try to switch my local account over to my MS one, it hangs for ages after putting in the password and then just simply says something went wrong, please try again later.

Any help would be much appreciated. I've waited 8 years for this game, it would be a shame to miss out because they decided to use the MS Store instead of Steam or even Epic at this point. Playing PSO2 is the only reason I care to troubleshoot this issue after so long.
 
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Darkbreeze
And I've worked, I dunno, about fifty threads just like yours over the last year, and in EVERY ONE of them, after a days or weeks long process they ended up having no success and having to do a clean install anyhow. Problems that involve your Microsoft account or Windows store being borked up are OCCASIONALLY, but rarely, able to be fixed without reinstalling Windows.

I'm just trying to save you from having to spend all that time and still do the same thing anyhow in the end. There are however some fairly uncomplicated things you can try first and you never know, I have seen people get lucky a few times.

The first thing I'd do is run a DISM restore online.

Repairing issues with DISM using RestoreHealth option

If there...
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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My advice? If it's that important to be able to login, do a clean install. Anything else is going to be a matter of throwing crap at the wall to see what, if anything, sticks, or digging around in the registry hoping to find a fix and not bork anything else up.

A clean install is GUARANTEED to fix the problem, unless the problem is not actually with your system but with Microsoft's customer database and a clean install would tell you that as well. The only problem is that of course you'd have to reinstall all your currently installed games and applications. You could spend another 2 years trying to find a fix, or do a clean install and be done with it, today.

Also, before you do ANYTHING, go into control panel by typing "control" without the quotes in your start menu search or run box and hitting enter. Then open the System applet and verify that your copy of Windows is activated because if it isn't then that's the whole problem and nothing else is going to matter until that is resolved anyhow. If it is activated, and you know it is, then you can rather quickly resolve this as follows. If it's been more than two years since the last time you did a clean install OR if you never have, and this system has been riding major update after major update since being initially installed or upgrading from a previous Windows version, it should probably be done even if you weren't having account issues.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
 
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NumbrXerr0

NumbrXerr0

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Darkbreeze said:
My advice? If it's that important to be able to login, do a clean install. Anything else is going to be a matter of throwing crap at the wall to see what, if anything, sticks, or digging around in the registry hoping to find a fix and not bork anything else up.

A clean install is GUARANTEED to fix the problem, unless the problem is not actually with your system but with Microsoft's customer database and a clean install would tell you that as well. The only problem is that of course you'd have to reinstall all your currently installed games and applications. You could spend another 2 years trying to find a fix, or do a clean install and be done with it, today.

Also, before you do ANYTHING, go into control panel by typing "control" without the quotes in your start menu search or run box and hitting enter. Then open the System applet and verify that your copy of Windows is activated because if it isn't then that's the whole problem and nothing else is going to matter until that is resolved anyhow. If it is activated, and you know it is, then you can rather quickly resolve this as follows. If it's been more than two years since the last time you did a clean install OR if you never have, and this system has been riding major update after major update since being initially installed or upgrading from a previous Windows version, it should probably be done even if you weren't having account issues.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm aware that that should fix it. I'm just trying to avoid having to redo everything from scratch. I was hoping to get some insight into what could be causing the issue before deciding to scrap everything the first chance I get. The issue appeared 2 years ago, but I've only started trying to fix it like..6 hours ago. I've barely scratched the surface there. I've just tried all the basic troubleshooting.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

Retired Mod
Jun 24, 2014
80,411
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And I've worked, I dunno, about fifty threads just like yours over the last year, and in EVERY ONE of them, after a days or weeks long process they ended up having no success and having to do a clean install anyhow. Problems that involve your Microsoft account or Windows store being borked up are OCCASIONALLY, but rarely, able to be fixed without reinstalling Windows.

I'm just trying to save you from having to spend all that time and still do the same thing anyhow in the end. There are however some fairly uncomplicated things you can try first and you never know, I have seen people get lucky a few times.

The first thing I'd do is run a DISM restore online.

Repairing issues with DISM using RestoreHealth option

If there are issues, then you can use DISM with the RestoreHealth option, which will run an advanced scan and repair any problems automatically.


To repair Windows 10 image problems with DISM, use these steps:


  1. Open Start.
  2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
  3. Type the following command to repair the Windows 10 image and press Enter:
    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
    Source: Windows Central
    Quick note: While the command is running, it's expected to see the process stuck at 20 or 40 percent. After a few minutes, the process will complete successfully.

Once you complete the steps, the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool will connect to the Windows Update servers to download and replace any damaged files in the local image for Windows 10 as necessary.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

Next, I'd run SFC Scannow.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...er-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system
 
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