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I think I've found a bug with Windows 10 that I put on the feedback app, but, it hasn't had any traction and I've raised with Microsoft but haven't had a lot of luck. I was wondering if I am doing something wrong and if anyone can help, or if this really is a bug?

I have a personal Microsoft account that I use on my home devices which are not domain joined. This Microsoft account is on my personal email address of [email protected]. I use the Microsoft account to sync standard settings across devices.

I then have my company Office 365 account on the same [email protected] address. This has got my Microsoft office subscription and my emails.

Whenever you try to add an account to MS Office (or even I think Windows 8 as I did this there), it immediately detects both accounts and asks you which you want to add:

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However, on Windows 10, it seems to not give you the option and immediately comes up with an error:

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The main reason for wanting this is that if you want the Windows lock screen to be more useful, you need to add your Exchange (or other) account to Windows as it is the only way to see appointments and other information - it is not compatible unfortunately with Outlook.

So, I was wondering if anyone has a solution or workaround (as I've come to a blank), am I doing something wrong, or is this simply a bug?

At the moment, I believe the workaround is to simply rename my personal Microsoft account, however, this seems like a really stupid compromise! I'm also thinking of just getting rid of the MS account and using local ones again as I am struggling to actually see a benefit other than a few wallpapers syncing!

update

I've been messing around for a while, trying different scenarios - If during setup, I select a local account, then add the email account first, it then fully syncs and works, and it also allows me to add the microsoft account after - however, this seems to create a fundamental error as the Microsoft account doesn't seem to actually work (apps/wallpaper not syncing), and after adding the Microsoft account, the email suddenly stops working and says I need to update the settings every 5 minutes.

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It's interesting that it allows it this way round, but, just fundamentally doesn't work.

I'm unfortunately putting this down to a bug and hope it gets fixed :(

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  • btw: Microsoft has made it impossible to have both a personal and work account with the same mail address. You might be better off just renaming your personal account.
    – Daniel B
    Nov 12, 2017 at 13:07

1 Answer 1

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I am in the same scenario and this is the "official" supported solution which does appear to work.

Instructions:

  1. Log out of all browser/MS sessions and clear all MS cookies

  2. Log into your PERSONAL MS live account

  3. Go into your account details, and click the link to add a secondary ALIAS address (and select [email protected] if available)

  4. Toggle the PRIMARY contact on the personal account to the new @outlook.com, but you CAN (and should) leave the old email that matches your o365 (so nothing breaks). Remember, that "email" address matching your o365 was NEVER for mail routing and only for inbound authentication, which is why you are leaving it.

  5. For Win10 (and now ANYWHERE) you typically enter your email and answer that question you refer to of whether it is a personal or work account, you now enter the @outlook.com. Even though it resolves to the exact same acct - it now all works and this will now do away with that question, permanently.

NOTE:

MS actually began adding this some time ago as the solution for exactly this issue - but for onedrive. Because you leave your old email address, you can actually still enter it and also anywhere you have saved those credentials, they of course will continue to work however you MAY see it automagically change the reference to the @outlook.com on it's own (depends on the implementation).

NOTE #2:

I have done this for about a year now and WIDELY use both my personal and o365 and have only run into ONE site/issue and it's ironically MS' own site - and that is the Powershell Gallery. If you happen to make this change and like me used your PERSONAL MS for the Gallery using the non @outlook.com address, something on that backend once resolving their SID equivalent using the @outlook.com will now loop back to the wrong acct. This only took one email to the Gallery support and within an hour they replied and changed my existing Gallery account primary email address to the @outlook.com, and magically my access was fully restored. I have literally had ZERO other issues and your Win10 issue is also resolved with this supported method.

NOTE #3:

This is a ONE-WAY change, you can later change the primary account email alias back to ANY OTHER email address you wish EXCEPT back to the o365 shared address because in MS' eyes - this is no longer a "desired" configuration and clearly their way of pushing users in this boat away from it. Basically right now you are Grandfathered and once you turn it off they will not allow you to go back (and new users' also are no longer allowed to even select their o365 address as an initial personal LIVE address).

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