Quote:"Microsoft account is already here" is an error message that you may receive when you try to switch from a local account to a Microsoft account on Windows 11 or 10 devices.

Windows tells you that the Microsoft account that you want to add to the system exists on it already.

While it is clearly not possible to add the same Microsoft account multiple times to a Windows system, it may also happen that you get the error when trying to add your own account or want to switch to it while using a local account.

Tip: did you know that you may still set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft account?

I ran into this issue recently during a test. I signed-in to Windows using a Microsoft account, went to the Account settings and activated the "stop signing in to all Microsoft apps automatically" there to turn it into a local account. Quite the confusing name for the option, right?

Note that some users may also see "Sign in with a local account instead".



This worked without issues. When I tried to switch to the Microsoft account, it looked at first as if this was not a problem at all.
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