Windows 10: My mother locked herself out of the laptop.. Forgotten pin and now has a new phone number...

Forgotten pin and now has a new phone number so she can no longer receive texts on the old one to retrieve She has done this twice. she is elderly and this is the second new laptop she did this to. The other one we had to trash. Not happy with microsoft. If you buy a laptop you should not have to remember a pin and it no longer gives you the option to bypass the set pin as it used to on a new laptop. So she has no pin and no phone number to text it to . What now??????

And no I am not paying for a simple answer. Computer geeks at Best Buy said the computer has to be wiped. Not going to happen. There has to be a better way.

:)

 

Forgotten lock screen password but don't want to reset phone

Hi,
SharonEElliott.

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community.

Find my Phone feature on Windows 10 Mobile allows you to
remote lock your phone with a PIN of your own choice. As long as the phone is connected to the internet and accessible, you can reset your PIN lock remotely. If you never enabled Find my Phone feature, the only option is to reset your device.

Enable Find my Phone:

• Settings > Update and Recovery > Find my Phone.

• Toggle the options which saves your device location periodically & more often.

• Make sure you have SIM in the phone, and it works.

How to remotely change PIN

Let’s say you forgot your PIN, and have entered multiple times with no success. Windows 10 Mobile blocks you out, and sometimes even asks you to restart the phone before trying again.

• Go to
  https://account.microsoft.com/devicesand select your device.

• Click on Find My Phone. The next page gives you option to Ring, Lock and Erase.
  

• Click on Lock. Here you can set a 6 digit PIN, along with a message and an optional contact number.

• Click on Lock again, and your phone should get locked with new PIN. Use the new PIN to unlock.

Interesting to note:

• Instead of 4 digit PIN lock, Windows 10 Mobile now has 6 digit PIN lock, along with option to use a number. Windows Phone 8.1 has 4 digit PIN lock with only option to send message.

• The phone restarts once the new PIN is remotely set.

Please let us know if it helps.

 

how to reset pin number

Hi,

Step 1: In the Lock screen, click on the I forgot my PIN link.

Step 2: Enter your Microsoft account password and click Next.

Step 3: If you have two-step verification turned on for your Microsoft account, you have to enter the recovery email address or phone number to verify your ownership.

Step 4: Enter the security code you’ve received from Microsoft, and click Next.

Step 5: Click on Continue to confirm. A popup will appear and you’re prompted to set up a PIN. Enter at least a minimum 4 digit new PIN number you want for your Microsoft account

After resetting PIN successfully, you can now sign in to Windows 10 with your Microsoft account using the new PIN. However, the "I forgot my PIN" option is only available at the sign-in screen when using a Microsoft account. If you are using a local account,
follow steps in Option 2.

If you are using a local account and forgot your PIN code, log in with your password and follow these steps below to reset your PIN.

Step 1: On your lock screen, under the PIN entry box, select Sign-in options and sign in with your password.

Step 2: Go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options, and click on I forgot my PIN.

Step 3: Type your account password and click OK.

Step 4: Enter your new PIN in the fields and click OK. Then a new PIN is created.

Good luck

 

Forgotten PIN

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

I have had the phone powered on since your e-mail and tried what you said but, unfortunately, I'm still without access. When I try a PIN on the phone, I get a message that says 'please try again in xxx minutes'.

In following your instructions, I do not get the option to choose a new PIN for my phone. The message I get is 'Your phone will be locked with the pin you have already set'. As I cannot remember this, I have not completed the steps. However, this
may be moot as my phone cannot be found in the first place when I click on 'find my phone'.

Things I have tried:

• I put a live SIM card in the Sumsung phone and tried the RING button on my Microsoft account. The phone rang. So I took the SIM out of the phone, clicked RING again and the message on the computer screen was that the phone could not be found.
• I have another phone - Microsoft Lumia - and I put the SIM in this. I tried the RING button and the phone rang. I took the SIM out and tried the RING button again. The phone rang.
• Home wireless broadband connection is working as the connection symbol is visible on both phones. On the Samsung, I can see the e-mail symbol on the lock screen and the number of e-mails is increasing so the wireless connection must work.

So, in summary, when connected to the internet via a wireless broadband connection, a phone with no SIM will still be found and will ring when instructed to do so via a user Microsoft account. My Samsung phone has no SIM and is connected to the internet
but cannot be found via my Microsoft account.

Is there anything else that I can do?

Thanks