AT&T 8x Can't connect to microsoft account even after factory reset

[Techh3ad]

Hello everyone. My first post.

After a few days of being unable to update apps I started to look into why my locked AT&t 8x couldn't update or get new apps. The error was something like, The Microsoft account service is unavailable...

Tried setting the time manually, changed my MS account password, tried different MS account, soft, and hard resets, downloaded a new keyboard. At one point I got the 8501001F error. Finally I did a factory reset. It just won't connect to my MS account at all. i can't get onedrive, buy apps/games, etc. I can set it up as an email, contacts, calendar account. The phone works fine - calls, internet, email, calendar, contacts all sync to my accounts. Outlook.com, Corp Exchange, and Gmail.

Calls to AT&T have been unfruitful. Interestingly, MS Windows phone support knew upfront that I was with AT&T after stating I have the 8x and couldn't set up the MS account on it. Apparently they are getting a lot of incidents about this problem. Any else run into this and get it resolved?

 

[xxbraincellsxx]

Hello , I'm having the same exact problem with my phone. I've took out my SIM , hard reset , I even restarted my whole phone 6 times. I honestly never liked these type of phones . But mine has been doing this for 3 days .

 

[TXRangerScott]

I'm having the same problem. I thought it was related to my Microsoft account not syncing, but I finally got it synched by turning off the text message backup feature and still, "the microsoft account service is unavailable". I cannot use my Xbox Music Pass. I should just go get an iPhone like everyone else.

 

[bahassler]

Hello, I too am having this problem with my AT&T HTC 8X. It began on February 18, 2015. I've followed all the recommendations found in the forums and even held a chat session with Microsoft Windows Phone support, all to no avail. Supposedly my issue has been escalated to a higher level of support and I will hear back within 72 hours. I have performed numerous hard resets of my phone and I have a cloud backup, but without being able to connect to your Microsoft account, a restore can't be done. I will post back if I get resolution. In the meantime, I'm shopping for a new phone (and carrier).
UPDATE: All of a sudden, this morning, Feb. 24, I was able to connect. I don't know why or whether someone at Microsoft working on my issue did something to get me going. I haven't heard from them. Now I will try to restore from a backup.
UPDATE 2: Restore went well. Had to perform another hard reset to get the opportunity to say "yes" to restore from a backup. It even brought back all my text messages from September, 2013, until the present time.