5 ms·

The way Microsoft accounts work is almost completely opaque to users. I’ve been in similar scenarios — the switch directory or switch organisation technique us

by LeonB 4y ago

The way Microsoft accounts work is almost completely opaque to users. I’ve been in similar scenarios — the switch directory or switch organisation technique usually worked for me - but wasn’t enough for this person. They never really give you enough information to tell what’s going on… maybe it’s a security risk to have consumers who are anything other than bewildered Kafkerian characters struggling against a faceless bureaucracy? I suppose we should not question their wisdom and be thankful that we can log in at all. Atlassian manage to make it even more confusing than Microsoft. So there’s that.

LeonB 4y ago
Now, if Microsoft bought Atlassian — that would be absolute theoretical maximum limit of peak confusion when logging into an app. “Warning: You are about to login to Microsoft Atlassian Fogbugz Trello. Have you cleared sufficient space in your calendar, notified your next of kin, put your affairs in order, and taken your sedatives?”
- eastbound 4y ago
  Atlassian ID was a negative point when choosing software. We, as an Atlassian plugin maker, chose GitLab internally, and Notion, both because at least it was properly integrated and didn’t have the awful Atlassian ID and switch between apps…
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  The fun part being it always looks fine and smooth for the first 30 minutes. It's once your sessions start expiring or you're trying to use the other services in meaningful ways that the journey begins.
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
  Like you would get anything as considerate as a warning.
- aprilnya 4y ago
  I’m gonna have nightmares about this
- dismalpedigree 4y ago
  Ha. You have two factor on MS, main atlassian, and former bitbucket? Prepare for peak confusion. Three different MFAs will be needed but we wont tell you which one is for which step. Oh and if you make a mistake you get to start all over!
ryanjshaw 4y ago
Try having a kid and segregating funds for them while paying for their Xbox Game Pass and a Minecraft Realm with your account. I have 25 years of Windows software development experience and I was almost reduced to tears just trying to understand what I'm even trying to accomplish. Realms is still in some kind of half subscribed, half not subscribed state and it still asks for my account's PIN for purchases but actually only accepts my kid's PIN. And every game warns me that my setup is questionable (store account doesn't match game account) even though it's exactly what Microsoft tells parents to do. Even Microsoft's own Minecraft app complains every 30 days! I suggest this area for any web2 bug bounty hunters looking to make a fortune.
- aceazzameen 4y ago
  Setting up my kids to play on a realms account is horrid experience! And nevermind explaining how to do it to the parents of my kids' friends. Most of the kids still haven't managed to get on. Also parental controls seems to suck in general on most services. Nintendo Switch seems to get it right for the most part.
- LeonB 4y ago
  I witnessed an egregious bug once - where logging in with one users name and a different users 2FA let me in. I just looked for my notes on it and can’t find them. I’m happy for you not to take my word on it other than to say — I concur that there are some egregious bugs in this area!
  - ryanjshaw 4y ago
    I completely believe you - I have performed this setup twice, on different machines, and in both cases the end result is that it uses the kids PIN to authenticate despite requesting the adult's PIN. I have no idea where to report the issue to (Microsoft store? Minecraft support? Microsoft Windows support?), and having dealt with Microsoft support in a professional capacity I know that even if I do figure out where to report it that they will waste weeks of my time asking me to explain the issue and then claim it's working as designed without understanding the problem at all.
MattPalmer1086 4y ago
Arghhh... I swear I only have one Microsoft account, but it randomly seems to use either one password or an older one. I've been round loops several times resetting the password and all seems well, until it seems to want an older one again. I didn't bother porting my Mojang account to Microsoft, it was too stressful to use.
ncallaway 4y ago
We took on a client on Azure 4-5 years ago. something happened to my MS account at that time, that made it impossible to sign in to a random subset of MS services (it would either report that the pw was invalid, or I didn’t have permissions). It was something like two accounts existed in the system with the same email address and one of them had permissions, but we couldn’t sign in to it and the other we could sign in to, but didn’t have permissions and there was no way to grant it permissions. I spent several hours with MS support over a few days while they tried to sort it out, reset passwords, sign in via different systems, etc. Eventually they recommend we create a new account. I stopped working with Azure clients, instead.

by LeonB 4y ago

LeonB 4y ago

Now, if Microsoft bought Atlassian — that would be absolute theoretical maximum limit of peak confusion when logging into an app. “Warning: You are about to login to Microsoft Atlassian Fogbugz Trello. Have you cleared sufficient space in your calendar, notified your next of kin, put your affairs in order, and taken your sedatives?”

eastbound 4y ago
Atlassian ID was a negative point when choosing software. We, as an Atlassian plugin maker, chose GitLab internally, and Notion, both because at least it was properly integrated and didn’t have the awful Atlassian ID and switch between apps…
makeitdouble 4y ago
The fun part being it always looks fine and smooth for the first 30 minutes. It's once your sessions start expiring or you're trying to use the other services in meaningful ways that the journey begins.
Brian_K_White 4y ago
Like you would get anything as considerate as a warning.
aprilnya 4y ago
I’m gonna have nightmares about this
dismalpedigree 4y ago
Ha. You have two factor on MS, main atlassian, and former bitbucket? Prepare for peak confusion. Three different MFAs will be needed but we wont tell you which one is for which step. Oh and if you make a mistake you get to start all over!

ryanjshaw 4y ago

Try having a kid and segregating funds for them while paying for their Xbox Game Pass and a Minecraft Realm with your account. I have 25 years of Windows software development experience and I was almost reduced to tears just trying to understand what I'm even trying to accomplish. Realms is still in some kind of half subscribed, half not subscribed state and it still asks for my account's PIN for purchases but actually only accepts my kid's PIN. And every game warns me that my setup is questionable (store account doesn't match game account) even though it's exactly what Microsoft tells parents to do. Even Microsoft's own Minecraft app complains every 30 days! I suggest this area for any web2 bug bounty hunters looking to make a fortune.

aceazzameen 4y ago
Setting up my kids to play on a realms account is horrid experience! And nevermind explaining how to do it to the parents of my kids' friends. Most of the kids still haven't managed to get on. Also parental controls seems to suck in general on most services. Nintendo Switch seems to get it right for the most part.
LeonB 4y ago
I witnessed an egregious bug once - where logging in with one users name and a different users 2FA let me in. I just looked for my notes on it and can’t find them. I’m happy for you not to take my word on it other than to say — I concur that there are some egregious bugs in this area!
- ryanjshaw 4y ago
  I completely believe you - I have performed this setup twice, on different machines, and in both cases the end result is that it uses the kids PIN to authenticate despite requesting the adult's PIN. I have no idea where to report the issue to (Microsoft store? Minecraft support? Microsoft Windows support?), and having dealt with Microsoft support in a professional capacity I know that even if I do figure out where to report it that they will waste weeks of my time asking me to explain the issue and then claim it's working as designed without understanding the problem at all.

MattPalmer1086 4y ago

Arghhh... I swear I only have one Microsoft account, but it randomly seems to use either one password or an older one. I've been round loops several times resetting the password and all seems well, until it seems to want an older one again. I didn't bother porting my Mojang account to Microsoft, it was too stressful to use.

ncallaway 4y ago

We took on a client on Azure 4-5 years ago. something happened to my MS account at that time, that made it impossible to sign in to a random subset of MS services (it would either report that the pw was invalid, or I didn’t have permissions). It was something like two accounts existed in the system with the same email address and one of them had permissions, but we couldn’t sign in to it and the other we could sign in to, but didn’t have permissions and there was no way to grant it permissions. I spent several hours with MS support over a few days while they tried to sort it out, reset passwords, sign in via different systems, etc. Eventually they recommend we create a new account. I stopped working with Azure clients, instead.