"Your account has been locked. Contact your support person to unlock it, then try again." error when signing in to Microsoft 365

Problem

When you try to sign in to the Microsoft 365 portal, you receive the following error message:

Your account has been locked. Contact your support person to unlock it, then try again.

Solution

To resolve this issue, use the following methods in the order in which they're presented. After each method, test to see whether the issue is resolved. If the issue isn't resolved, go to the next method.

For users

Method 1: Wait 15 minutes.

Note

If this doesn't resolve the issue, contact your admin to perform the other methods in this article.

For admins

Method 2: Make sure that the user is allowed to sign in.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 portal as an admin.
  2. Under Users, Select Active Users.
  3. Locate the user, and then click the users Display name to open the settings pane.
  4. At the top of the pane, select Unblock sign-in.
  5. In the Unblock sign-in screen, de-select Block this user from signing in and click Save changes.

Method 3: Reset the user's password.

As a Microsoft 365 admin, perform a password reset for the user.

Method 4: Reset the user's sign-in status.

Change the sign-in status of the user from Allowed to Blocked, and then change it back to Allowed. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 portal as an admin.
  2. Under Users, Select Active Users
  3. Locate the user, and then click the users Display name to open the settings pane.
  4. At the top of the pane, select Block sign-in.
  5. In the Block sign-in screen, select Block this user from signing in and click Save changes.
  6. In the Unblock sign-in screen, de-select Block this user from signing in and click Save changes.

If you are the only administrator in your organization and your account is locked, contact Microsoft 365 support. Still need help? Go to Microsoft Community.