I had purchased Sea of Thieves in 2024 on Steam and had successfully installed and played it on my computer for many months. I stopped playing for a while as I moved on to some other games, but last night decided to pick things back up again with Sea of Thieves to check out all the new content. When I launch the game, it opens and eventually gets to the "Start", "Sign Out", or "Exit to Desktop" selection, but before you can select any of those, a window appears asking me to sign in to my Microsoft account. My email address is already pre-populated and it's just asking for my password. I then key in my password and click "Next", and immediately it says "Please retry with a different device or other authentication method to sign in. For more details, please see this link.". When clicking the link, it's just a bunch of suggestions regarding resetting your password, signing out and back in again, or trying to pick a different account etc.... Nothing of any help.
Over the next 3 hours, I did all of the following, and to no success, as even this morning, the issue is still present.
- I tried to click "Sign in with a different Microsoft Account" just to see what would happen, even though I only have one Microsoft account, but when I click this, the window only flickers for a brief moment and doesn't allow me to change my email. So my original email, which is still accurate is still pre-populated as the login and it's still just asking me for the password. Odd.
- I then tried just closing out of the Microsoft window - where it was asking me to sign in, but it just keeps popping back up and won't allow me to click "Start" to play the game. The window just keeps popping up.
- To verify my password is correct, I opened a web browser, went to https://account.microsoft.com/account, as well as https://www.xbox.com/en-US/live, and I was able to successfully login to each with the same credential I was using when prompted within Sea of Thieves.
- I then tried signing out of the Xbox App, Microsoft Store App, and the Microsoft website where I had just logged in to test, to make sure I was signed out of anything/everything associated with my account on this computer. I also remembered that I have a Minecraft account associated to this same credential, so I opened Minecraft and logged out from the launcher there as well. Next, I opened the Windows Credential Manager, and purged the saved credential I had on file for this Microsoft account. I then re-opened the https://account.microsoft.com/account website, chose "Forgot my Password", and went through the process of resetting my password. Once the password was successfully changed, I opened the Xbox App, Microsoft Store App, and Minecraft, and was successfully able to get signed back in. I then re-launched Sea of Thieves and when I got to the main menu the window to login to my Microsoft account popped up again and it still had my email pre-populated, which was still correct, so I entered the password but it returned the same error again.
- I then checked for any/all Microsoft Store updates, Windows updates, and Nvidia driver updates, and there were a few that needed updating, including the Xbox app, so I got all those updated and then tried to play Sea of Thieves again, but the same issue occurred.
- At this point, I know my credential is working, I know I have all the updates for my computer installed, I know that one of my other games (Minecraft) that uses this same credential is working, so I think it's fair to say that the issue now is simply just with Sea of Thieves. Due to this, I decided to purge the games installation from my computer. I uninstalled it and combed the C:\ drive for any leftover files and didn't see any. I rebooted my computer, then re-downloaded Sea of Thieves from Steam from scratch. It took overnight for the download to complete and this morning it was completed and ready to play. I loaded up the game, the window appeared again asking me to login and my Microsoft email was still pre-populated...??? I don't know how/why that is still cached in there, especially after an uninstall/re-install, and when I key in the password the same issue occurs. Also, I still can't even change the account if I wanted, because when I select to use a different Microsoft account, the window just flickers but never actually lets me change anything.
Update
7. I found some info googling regarding deleting the following entries in the Credential Manager for the Xbox Network to clear the cache: Find and remove any credentials labeled "XBL ticket" or containing "1717113201". I had all of those on my computer, so I removed them. I then loaded the game, and it had finally cleared my cached Microsoft credential and was asking me for my email & password, cool! So I typed in my email, then password, and same error occurred :(. Next, I called my brother, as he also has Sea of Thieves and actively plays. I got his credentials to his Microsoft account and tried to login as him, and the same error occurs! This isn't a problem linked to just my account - has to be something with the game or the computer, I just don't know what. So frustrating!
8. I've also now created an entirely new user in Windows, made it an administrator, had to re-authenticate to Steam, Xbox App, and the Microsoft Store. I then loaded the game, entered my email and password, same issue. Unreal.
At this point I don't know what else to do or try other than completely re-installing Windows, which I am not willing to do just to play this game. Something is either broken within the game, a corrupted cache that I can't seem to find/clear, but I am out of ideas at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
