In This Guide
You go to check your email and Microsoft shows a screen saying "Sign in faster with your face, fingerprint, or PIN", or your work login says you need to register a passkey. Some people tap "Skip" for weeks; others get a screen with no skip button at all.
Both are part of the same change: Microsoft is replacing text-message codes with passkeys. What you should do depends on the type of account.
1. Personal or Work Account? How to Tell
| Personal Microsoft account | Work or school account | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical address | @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or your own email used for Xbox, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Family | Your business or school address, set up by an IT person or provider |
| Where security lives | account.microsoft.com → Security | mysignins.microsoft.com → Security info (aka.ms/mysecurityinfo) |
| Who controls the rules | You, within Microsoft's limits | Your organisation's administrator |
| SMS deadline | Being phased out — no published date | Retired 1 Feb 2027 (1 Jul 2027 for Global Admins and external users) |
If you pay for Microsoft 365 through your business, or someone set your email up for the office, it's almost certainly a work account. If you made it yourself for Hotmail, Outlook.com or Xbox, it's personal.
Some people have both with the same email address. Microsoft will ask which one you mean. Choose carefully, because the security settings are completely separate.
2. Setting Up a Passkey on a Personal Microsoft Account
Microsoft's own steps, in plain terms:
- Sign in at account.microsoft.com and open Security, then the sign-in and verification options (the direct page is account.live.com/proofs/manage).
- Choose Add a new way to sign in or verify, then Face, fingerprint, PIN, or security key.
- Pick where to save it: this Windows PC (Windows Hello), your phone (scan the QR code — Bluetooth must be on for both devices), a password manager, or a USB security key.
- Confirm with your face, fingerprint or PIN. Give the passkey a name you'll recognise later, such as "Sam's iPhone".
- Sign out and back in once to check it works before you change anything else.
Microsoft's guide: Create and save a passkey for your Microsoft account.
Microsoft's help page says the option to add a phone number "may not be available" on your account. Plenty of people have deleted a number while tidying up and couldn't add it back. Leave it until the passkey and a recovery email are both working.
Also add a verified recovery email — a different address you can always get into. Microsoft names "passkeys and verified email" as the replacement for SMS recovery.
3. Setting Up a Passkey on a Work or School Account
If your organisation uses Microsoft 365, passkeys were switched on by default from 1 September 2026 for anyone set up for text or call codes, and you'll be nudged to register one when you next sign in. At first you can usually snooze it; after 1 February 2027 people with nothing but SMS can't.
- Go to mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info and sign in.
- Choose Add sign-in method → Passkey.
- Most people use Microsoft Authenticator on their phone. On iPhone, first turn on Authenticator as a passkey provider: Settings → General → AutoFill & Passwords. Android needs a recent version — Microsoft recommends Android 15.
- Or use Windows Hello on your work computer, or a USB/NFC security key if your workplace issues one.
- Follow the prompts, then sign out and back in to test it.
Microsoft says passkeys in Authenticator can't be synced or backed up. When you change phones you create a new one — so keep a second method (Windows Hello or another device) registered. Guide: moving Authenticator to a new phone.
If you see "passkey does not meet the criteria set by your admin", your organisation only allows certain kinds of passkey. That's a setting your IT provider controls, not something you can fix on the phone.
4. Windows Hello Passkeys on Your PC
Windows 11 can hold passkeys too. You confirm them with your Windows Hello PIN, fingerprint or face. You'll find them under Settings → Accounts → Passkeys, where you can also delete old ones.
Windows can save a passkey to the computer itself, or to Microsoft Password Manager so it syncs. Microsoft's own advice is to create passkeys on your other devices as well, to "act as a digital spare key".
5. Common Errors and What They Mean
| What you see | Usual cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| "No passkeys available" | Screen lock is turned off | Turn on a PIN, face or fingerprint lock, then try again |
| QR code won't connect to your phone | Bluetooth off on one device, or they're too far apart | Turn Bluetooth on for both and keep them close. They don't need to be on the same Wi-Fi |
| "This passkey can no longer be used" | The passkey was deleted, or the device PIN or biometrics changed | Sign in another way and create a new passkey; delete the stale one |
| "Passkey already exists" (Authenticator) | Created on the phone but never registered with your account | Delete it inside Authenticator and start again |
| Android: "We couldn't sign you in" on a work phone | Passkey saved in the personal profile, not the work profile | Recreate it in the work profile |
| Windows 11 loop: "Something went wrong", then back to the lock screen | Reported since July 2026; no confirmed cause | Sign in another way, remove that PC's passkeys at account.microsoft.com, then try again or get help |
Microsoft's list: Troubleshoot signing in with a passkey.
Stuck in a Passkey Loop?
We'll work out which account it is and get a working sign-in method in place — remotely or onsite.
Get Help6. For Business Owners: Before 1 February 2027
- Find who still relies on text or call codes. Microsoft publishes a usage report script for admins.
- Get those staff onto passkeys, Authenticator or Windows Hello now, while SMS still works as a fallback.
- Set up two emergency ("break-glass") admin accounts — Microsoft's own recommendation — so one lost phone can't lock the whole business out. Microsoft guidance.
- If you genuinely need SMS (for example staff without smartphones), Microsoft's paid SMS provider option opens from 30 October 2026.
Our business IT support team does this rollout for small offices, including the staff who'll need a hand on the day.
Sources
Microsoft Learn — Passkeys by default and retirement of Microsoft-provided SMS and voice authentication and its FAQ · Microsoft Support — Microsoft to stop sending SMS codes for personal accounts · Microsoft — Add a new way to sign in · Create and save a passkey · Troubleshoot signing in with a passkey · Register a passkey in Authenticator · Passkeys in Windows. Checked 11 October 2026.