Again in March earlier this yr, a brand new redesigned Microsoft Account sign-in was launched with the intention to make it “extra fashionable, easy, and safe.” Microsoft additionally most likely hopes that the revamp will assist win some hearts since many dislike the Microsoft Account (MSA) fairly a bit as they’re pressured to make use of the service throughout Home windows 11 set up.

Sure, signing in to the MSA is without doubt one of the a number of system necessities for Home windows 11, and it is usually the advisable method and it clearly doesn’t prefer it when customers go for a Native account as a substitute.

Microsoft typically highlights the advantages of an MSA because it factors out the unified entry customers get throughout gadgets and providers like Home windows, Workplace, OneDrive, and Xbox, which may help in synchronization of recordsdata and settings for comfort.

A Microsoft Account additionally shops the BitLocker encryption key which is essential factor that each one customers who’ve encryption must retailer securely.

Again in Could this yr, we coated reviews of customers shedding their information as a consequence of BitLocker key loss, and it is a actual hazard for a lot of, on condition that Microsoft now permits computerized BitLocker encryption on Home windows 11 24H2, that the majority customers will not even concentrate on.

So within the case of lack of entry to a Microsoft Account, an affected person can all of a sudden discover that they’ve misplaced all their information and there could also be no approach to get well it in keeping with Microsoft’s phrases.

Such account lock-outs can occur as a Reddit person deus03690 discovered. The pissed off person claims that Microsoft apparently “randomly” locked their account once they had been coping with a number of information drives. They clarify:

“Microsoft randomly locked my account after I moved 30 years’ price of irreplaceable pictures and work to OneDrive. I used to be consolidating information from a number of previous drives earlier than a significant transfer—drives I needed to discard because of house and relocation constraints. The plan was easy: add to OneDrive, then switch to a brand new drive later.

As an alternative, Microsoft suspended my account with out warning, cause, or any legit recourse. I’ve submitted the compliance type 18 occasions—eighteen—and every time I get an automatic response that leads nowhere. No human contact. No precise assist. Simply canned emails and radio silence.”

The person has good cause to be aggravated and pissed off at this, Microsoft’s personal official steerage in regards to the Account lock says: “If you happen to tried to register to your account and acquired a message that it has been locked, it is as a result of exercise related together with your account may violate our Phrases of Use.”

The Phrases of Use for MSA clarify how Microsoft offers with a closed account. It states:

In case your Microsoft account is closed (whether or not by you or us), a couple of issues occur. First, your proper to make use of the Microsoft account to entry the Companies stops instantly.

Second, we’ll delete Knowledge or Your Content material related together with your Microsoft account or will in any other case disassociate it from you and your Microsoft account (until we’re required by regulation to maintain it, return it, or switch it to you or a 3rd get together recognized by you). It’s best to have an everyday backup plan as Microsoft received’t be capable to retrieve Your Content material or Knowledge as soon as your account is closed.

Third, you could lose entry to merchandise you’ve acquired.

Thus, this reveals how customers will be just about helpless in the event that they get locked out of MSA or lose entry to it. It additionally reveals how over-reliance on cloud providers on Home windows 11, one thing which LibreOffice just lately identified, can result in extra information nightmares like shedding your whole information because of pressured BitLocker encryption that you could be not even concentrate on was there within the first place.

The answer? Think about holding your vital information backed up domestically on inner or exterior HDDs and SSDs or NAS resolution, as solely cloud storage might be not the very best determination.