Windows 10: Microsoft Family Accounts are stuck

We had created MS family accounts for my kids, which were not working properly. I tried to remove those accounts using the online guides from my main account. From my account view, there are no family members or a group that exists. I tried to re-create the group and send invitations to my kids' accounts. They receive the invites and when they try to accept the invitation they get an error message stating that they "must first leave the existing family". HOWEVER, as stated previously, those accounts no longer exist in my main account view and there is no way to remove them, to start over. When I log into my child's account I see the members of the previously created family group, but I have no way to manage that group. It appears that I have a set of zombie accounts that cannot be removed and are also preventing my family from joining a new group. As stated before the directions to remove a child account do not work for me as the options to remove the account are simply unavailable in my views. This is ridiculously frustrating.

:)

 

Microsoft Account Family Settings: There is an account in my family I didn't create

Hi Andie,

Thank you for posting your response.

We appreciate the time and effort that you have invested in to fix the issue.

As per the above information, I suggest that you refer to the steps below and check if you are bale to remove the unknown account.

• Sign in at account.microsoft.com/family with your Microsoft account on any PC or device
• Click/tap on Remove under Adults in
  Your family
• Click/tap on the adult account you want to remove, and click/tap on Remove
• You (adult) and all other adults in family will now get an email confirming the adult has been removed from the family
  

Hope this helps

 

Microsoft Family Screen Time

Hi Laurel,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community forum.

This could happen when the child account fails to sync with the server. I suggest you to try the steps listed below and check if it works:

• Open
  File Explorer and navigate to the following location:
• C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Parental Controls
  
  
  Note:
  The above mentioned directory is hidden, copy and paste the same location on the search bar in the File Explorer to access it.
  
• Delete the contents in the
  \\settings directory of the Parental Controls folder.
  
• Reboot the machine to see if the issue persists.
  

If the issue persists, you may want to remove the child account from Microsoft family and add it again.

• To know how to remove an account from Microsoft Family, refer:
  
  Remove members from your family group
• To know how to add an account to Microsoft Family, refer:
  
  Add members to your family group
  

Regards,

 

How to delete an adult account in the Family Settings.

Hi,

To resolve your issue, we suggest that you follow the steps below:

• As an adult in the family account, sign in with your Microsoft account.
• Under Your family, click
  Remove.
  
• Click the child account you want to remove, and click Remove.
• You will get an email confirmation once the child has been removed from the family.

Note: If you removed a Child account, it will be tagged as an "Orphaned account" and you will need to attach another "Parent account".

Regards.