Question: Microsoft continually wants me to sign in when I’m accessing certain websites — for example, job boards, United Healthcare, even Canon Community, a help site for users of Canon cameras. The thing is, MS is asking for a password linked to a work account at a job I no longer have. If I try to sign in with my personal account, I’m told “User account [email protected] is a personal Microsoft account. Personal Microsoft accounts are not supported for this application unless explicitly invited to an organization. Try signing out and signing back in with an organizational account.” I’ve told Windows many times to forget that old work account, but it keeps coming back. It doesn’t matter which browser I’m using, Chrome or Edge. How can I stop this?
– Keith M.
Panama City, Florida
Answer: It is quite common to be prompted for a password these days when trying to access sites on the web that contain personally identifiable information that could result in identity theft if compromised. It’s possible that it’s not even Microsoft itself asking for your credentials. Some sites partner with Microsoft to use your Microsoft account as a master key of sorts that unlocks their content. Things start getting hairy when you have a business-related Microsoft account for work, and a personal Microsoft account that goes with your computer’s copy of Windows, plus perhaps Microsoft 365 and other Microsoft services. When you have both, sometimes you don’t even have control over which account is going to be used during a sign-in attempt. When you leave the employer that was providing the work account, the method to remove that work account from your life can be quite non-intuitive. I’ll explain how below. The rest I’ll attempt to handle later in this article.
When logins continually ask for your work account information, it’s usually because that account has lodged its information in the browser settings. If you’re no longer affiliated with that employer, you need to fully remove the account from the browser (not just disable it). This is actually much easier than it sounds. In Edge, click the 3-dots button in the top right corner, then select “Settings” (the “gear” icon). In the right-hand navigation bar, select “Profiles.” Scroll all the way to the bottom to find the area named “More profiles.” If the account you want to remove is not listed, it might be the currently active account. Select another account by clicking the “Switch” button in that account’s line. Once the work account is visible, click the trash can icon that lives next to the “Switch” button. Confirm that you are sure, and the account will be permanently deleted from the browser.
Of course, this doesn’t help the issue of sites you’re trying to access only wanting you to access if with a work account. By and large, if you gained the right to access a site as a perk of being an employee at some company, once you are no longer an employee there you will naturally lose your access rights. That is generally what the error you’re encountering means. It’s also possible that the site administrator has something configured wrong in their website implementation, and the site “thinks” you have to have a work account. I would imagine for the United Healthcare site, your right to access it ended when your relationship with your former employer ended, but the Canon Camera site? Unless your job had something to do with photography, and your company was paying the site for you to be able to access it, one would think that any Microsoft account would work. The logical course of action is to contact customer service at that site, and explain that you’re no longer with the employer that provided you the credentials you had previously been using to access their site, and ask whether they can help you switch to your personal account credentials.
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