Resetting your Passport password troubleshooting

Occasionally, you might have problems with using the Microsoft Passport (.NET Passport) in Microsoft Money. The error may be something like: "The sign-in atttempt for xxx@hotmail.com was unsuccessful. Please try your sign-in name and password again". One common solution to this, is to go the Passport site and reset the passport.

Normally, this should be sufficient to allow you to get back into Microsoft Money, but not always.

There are two solutions:

1. Either, reset your web browser cookies - this can be done as follows (for Internet Explorer):
   • Press Start->Control Panel
   • Double click 'Internet Options'
   • Select the 'General' tab, if not already selected and press 'Delete Cookies' in the part of the window with the title 'Temporary Internet Files'
   • Press 'OK' to confirm the deletion
   • Then press 'Cancel' to close the control pabel
   Users of Internet Explorer 7 will find the 'Delete Cookies' option by pressing the 'Delete...' option in 'browsing history', when on the General Page.
   
   If you don't want to delete all cookies, then reports suggest that deleting the *microsoft.com, *msn.com and *hotmail.com ones sufficient.
   
   
2. Or, you can reset the passport and regenerate the correct cookie. To do this follow the following instructions:
   • Using a web browser, go to a Passport site (www.passport.net)
   • Reset your password (you can do this by signing in, and then going to Account Services, or clicking on the 'Forgot your Password?' link under the email and password boxes
   • Then sign out of Passport if you are signed in
   • Sign back into Passport, and check ON the option to save both username and password.

If you have a cached password in your cookies, Microsoft Money will use it instead of using the password you type in, when you try to sign into the program.

Thanks to Casey Plummer for some of this article