Another fix to the "Connect-PnPOnline : The sign-in name or password does not match one in the Microsoft account system." error.

This post was most recently updated on March 28th, 2023.

2 min read.

This post describes a simple way to get around the following error while running Connect-PnPOnline: “The sign-in name or password does not match one in the Microsoft account system.” Truthfully, this one is kind of simple and stupid – but as I’ve seen before, it’s surely worth documenting anyway!

Below is an example of such an error.

PS C:\> Connect-PnPOnline https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/CommunicationSite/
Connect-PnPOnline : The sign-in name or password does not match one in the Microsoft account system.
At line:1 char:1
+ Connect-PnPOnline https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/CommunicationS ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Connect-PnPOnline], IdcrlException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.IdcrlException,SharePointPnP.PowerShell.Commands.Base.ConnectOnline

In my case, I had saved my credentials in a password manager, yet in a script, I was developing I ran into this error time and time again. I didn’t remember encountering it before, so my natural first guess was that the password had expired.

However, I could log in with the account, so the password and username I was using were correct. Then what causes this?

Solution

Are you sure you have entered your username and password correctly? You are? Good.

Have you disabled the credential caching (see below)? Great.

Oh no! PowerShell cached my Azure credentials and I messed up wrong customer’s environment!

If you’ve avoided all the abovementioned pitfalls, you might’ve run into the same issue I did, and feel as stupid as me after reading the next sentence.

Quotes. You need quotes around the URL, even if it doesn’t contain a space. This issue might manifest if you are pasting values in the PowerShell – which is exactly what I did.

Without the quotes, the cmdlet returns this error. While the error might not be the most informative at first sight, it actually makes sense: since the cmdlet is not able to figure out where it’s trying to login with your credentials – technically, your sign-in name and password do not match the ones Microsoft supposedly has for whatever null tenant they’re trying to authenticate you against.

So, make sure to try and authenticate against an URL that makes sense. One, that has quotes around it :)

Another thing to verify, as Faisal points out in the comments -section below, is that you’re using -UseWebLogin switches if your user account has MFA turned on. Worth trying out in any case :)

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Antti K. Koskela

Developer / Speaker / Consultant at Koskila / Precio Fishbone / Norppandalotti Software Co / Alter - Experience Ideas Ltd

Antti Koskela is a proud digital native nomadic millennial full stack developer (is that enough funny buzzwords? That's definitely enough funny buzzwords!), who works as Solutions Architect for Precio Fishbone, building delightful Digital Workplaces.

He's been a developer from 2004 (starting with PHP and Java), and he's been working on .NET projects, Azure, Office 365, SharePoint and a lot of other stuff. He's also Microsoft MVP for Azure.

This is his personal professional (e.g. professional, but definitely personal) blog.

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