Local account -> MS Account = locked out

Hi, I'm on a simple Win10 Home, 22H2, updated 2022-12-18.

long story shorter: I chose to convert my local account to a Microsoft account (username@outlook.com), but the procedure appeared frozen so after >30 min I closed the window and restarted the computer, believing the change did not pass. However, after restart, it had replaced my local login user with the MS account. After trying to login with my MS account, I get to an "Unlock PC" prompt, and it does not accept my Username and Password, neither my old local username/password, or the MS password. I have tried creating a clean new account as well, which it does also not recognize when trying to unlock the PC.

If I look in the user profiles, the "MS Account" still has my old username (probably since I did not manage to login and hence has not created one for the full MS Account name?). However, when lookin in the User Accounts (netplwiz), my old local username is no longer listed, but replaced with my MS username@outlook.com. When selecting Properties for this account, it is however still showing my old local "User name" for the MS account. If I change it and save, and then restart, it is reversed back to the state before I changed the user name. "net user" shows that only my old local username exist, not the MS Account version.

So, I have an account I cannot log in to, although I can access the files and data using a backup admin account.
1. Why do I get the "Unlock PC" prompt, and why does it not recognize the username/password?
2. Is there a way to turn a MS Account into local again, without first logging in to it (using another admin account on the same computer)? (Many posts show how to do this once you're logged in.) Anything I can change in the registry?
3. If I can't solve 1 and 2, I thought I would simply transfer the data and profile into a new account and simply delete the old account. Yet, how do I do this, using Explorer or cmd.exe? Simply copying the files into a new clean account did not work, it logged me in to a new temporary profile due to "Problems".

Thanks for your reply dalchina.

dalchina said:

Hi, by 'Unlock PC' do you mean this?
Unlock Local Account in Windows 10

No, that is not what I meant. It is like when you have locked your computer (after being away for a while, or Ctrl+Alt+Del followed by clicking "Lock"). This appears after I select the "Sign in" with my MS Account, (which is followed by "Just a moment" before the "Unlock the PC" appears, with the possibility to enter Username and Password, or clicking "Sign-in options" where I can choose Local/Domain account, or MS Account.

If I select local, it does not accept my username/password, neither of the username/pwd connected to the MS Account, nor my other admin account I use to access the PC now. I tried to reset them, as well as setting an empty password. I have no idea what user/pwd it compares with.

If I select MS Account, I'm prompted with "You must be online the first time to complete your account setup". I have access to internet, tried both with wifi and ethernet. I noticed, that even when logging in with my admin account and creating an additional local account, and a brand new outlook dummy account, I cannot get Windows to connect to MS through the outlook account. It is merely prompting "Oops, something went wrong". I suspect it is really some problem with Windows getting I have access to internet.

dalchina said:

As for MS accounts... you can reset the password on line as well:
Reset Password of User Account in Windows 10

Yes, I am aware of this, but since I can login to this account using a web browser, it's difficult for me to see why changing the password would help?

dalchina said:

Other data such as favourites, data related to email clients, for example, can be more difficult to deal with.

Yes, that's why I would like to transfer the whole package at once... but the guides I've found so far require me to be able to login to the account I want to transfer.

- - - Updated - - -

and I just found another old not resolved post that resembles my situation: Must be connected to internet the first time to log in