[Bug Fix] Windows Live Mail 2012 Shows “Please Enter Your PIN to Sign in” in Windows 10

A Few Words About the Problem:

First of all let me tell you that this problem is only related to the latest Windows 10 operating system and latest version 2012 (Wave 5) of Windows Live Mail which is a desktop email client program and a part of Windows Live Essentials package.

This problem will not occur if you use any previous version of Windows Live Mail such as 2009 (Wave 3) or 2008 (Wave 2). It’ll only occur if you use the latest Windows Live Mail 2012 version in Windows 10.

Also this problem will not occur in any previous Windows version such as Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Windows Live Mail 2012 will work fine in previous Windows versions.

So this problem only occurs if you use Windows Live Mail 2012 (Wave 5) version in Windows 10 operating system.

Problem Symptom:

When you install Windows Live Mail 2012 in Windows 10 and try to add your Microsoft email account such as Outlook.com, Hotmail.com or any other Microsoft account (formerly known as Windows Live account) in Windows Live Mail, it doesn’t accept the password of your email account.

Although the entered password is correct, Windows Live Mail will keep showing “Please enter your PIN to sign in” error message:

If you click on OK button, it’ll again show the account login screen to enter the password.

And the same loop will continue forever.

I tried the same thing on all of my Windows 10 machines and same thing happened on all machines. I even tried it on a clean install of Windows 10 but the same issue occurred.

I also tried to create a new app password using my Hotmail account security settings and tried to enter the same as the password in Windows Live Mail program but it didn’t accept it and kept asking for the PIN number.

As a workaround, I also tried to sign into my Hotmail account using Internet Explorer web browser and when the browser sent the 2-step verification code to my mobile phone, I tried to enter it as the password in Windows Live Mail sign-in screen but same issue occurred.

I also installed the recently released update KB3093594 to enable support for “Exchange ActiveSync” synchronization protocol in Windows Live Mail 2012 but it also didn’t work.

Related: [Fix] KB3093594 Update Causing Email Sync Problems to Windows Live Mail 2012

In fact, I also tried to create a PIN to use as a password using Settings app -> Accounts -> Sign-in options page but that also didn’t work.

So no matter what password or code you enter as the password of your email account in Windows Live Mail 2012 in Windows 10, it’ll keep asking for the PIN number which you’ll never know.

Problem Reason:

After some research and troubleshooting, I was able to figure out the main reason behind this problem.

It only happens if you have enabled the two-step verification feature in your Hotmail, Outlook or other Microsoft email account. It seems either Windows Live Mail 2012 or Windows 10 has some problem in the authentication mechanism to verify the app password or 2-step verification code.

I think its a problem in Windows Live Mail 2012 and it has not been programmed to send and accept the 2-step verification code of Hotmail, Outlook and other Microsoft email accounts. That’s why it asks for the PIN but doesn’t show any dialog box to enter the PIN. It just keeps showing the same email account login screen.

Problem Solution:

Currently the only working fix is to turn off the 2-step verification feature in your email account settings which I’ll never prefer as it’ll decrease your email account security. But if you really want to use Windows Live Mail 2012 program in Windows 10 to access your Hotmail or Outlook email accounts, you’ll need to disable 2-step verification using following steps:

1. First of all go to following link and sign in using your Microsoft account credentials:

Microsoft Account Security and Privacy Settings

Now click on “More security settings” link.

Alternatively you can click on following link to directly open your Microsoft account security settings page:

Microsoft Account Security Settings Page

2. Now scroll down a little and click on “Turn off two-step verification” link given on the page and follow the instructions.

That’s it. Once you turn off two-step verification feature in your email account settings, Windows Live Mail will stop asking for the PIN number and it’ll accept your email account password without any problem.

I hope Microsoft will address this issue and will release an update for Windows Live Mail 2012 to fix this annoying problem.