Why was I forced to change passwords on all accounts before I could access them?

Dear @K LaRue,

Good day. Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum!

For better assist, please kindly let me know some information:

• Are other users in your organization experiencing the same issue?
• Could you confirm if you have tried signing in from a different device or browser (e.g., Microsoft Edge) and whether the issue still persists?

In this case, please kindly reach out to your IT admin to access Microsoft Entra Admin Center and implement the following steps:

1. Sign in to Microsoft Entra Admin Center.
2. In the left navigation pane, select "Users".
3. Under "Password reset", choose "Registration".
4. Set Require users to register when signing in? to Yes.
5. In "Number of days before users are asked to re-confirm their authentication information", enter 180 (or a value as required).
6. Click Save to apply the changes.

For reference: Enable users to unlock their account or reset passwords using Microsoft Entra self-service password reset

Note: Please note that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.   

Your understanding and co-operation are highly appreciated. I am looking forward to your response!

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Dear K LaRue, 

I am following up on your issue. 

Thank you for getting back to us and taking the time to clarify that this issue is occurring with your individual Microsoft Accounts and your husband's account, despite the error message stating it's an organizational account. 

This behavior where a personal MS account is incorrectly flagged as organizational, forcing a password change is unusual, and I need to investigate it further as it seems to be affecting you and your friend across different Windows versions (Win 10 and Win 11). 

To better understand and investigate this incident, I may need some more detailed information from your side so that I can narrow down the issue in the right way: 

1. Could you please confirm the domain used for your affected accounts? (For example, are they ending in @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or is it a custom domain that you use for your business?). Please only provide the part after the "@" sign (the domain), and do not include the full email address. 
2. Are you using a specific Microsoft service (like Outlook.com, OneDrive, or Teams Free) when this error occurs, or does it happen when you try to sign into the core Microsoft Account portal (account.microsoft.com)? 
3. You mentioned that after clearing the cache, you received a "different login error." Could you please recall and provide the exact wording of that error message or any associated error code, if possible? 

In the meantime, as a general security best practice, especially since you had to perform forced password changes, I recommend ensuring Two-Step Verification (2FA) is enabled on all your personal Microsoft Accounts. This adds an extra layer of security, making it significantly harder for unauthorized users to access your account even if they know your password. 

Thank you for taking time researching the issue and trying the initial steps. Your patience and cooperation are highly appreciated as we look into the root cause of this incident.