Forgot Microsoft account username and password?

Question

My mother bough the Microsoft lumia phone around 3 years back. Looks like seller(or someone else) did setup microsoft account on her phone . She is not IT woman at all and does not have any idea about this

Now i need to install whatsapp on my her phone. But when i install whatsapp from window store it asks for microsoft account password which she does not know. In fact she does not whether account was ever setup and if yes who did and whats the username/pwd.

My question is is there a way so that I install whatsapp without microsoft account/pwd ?

If no how can i setup new microsoft account on her phone discarding old one

Answer 1

Looks like seller(or someone else) did setup microsoft account on her phone

Your best course of action depends on whether the Microsoft account that was set up on the phone is actually your mother's or someone else's. But in either case you will want to make sure a stranger does not have access to the account, as it will enable them to see your mother's emails and calendar events, the phone's location, and more.

If the account is your mother's, you can go to https://account.live.com/ResetPassword.aspx to begin the process of resetting the password. Once done, you will also want to review all account settings, especially those related to security (e.g. app passwords, recovery codes and trusted devices).

If the account belongs to someone else, you can remove it through Settings → Accounts (exact process depends on whether the phone has Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile). You can also add a new Microsoft account there. Alternatively, you could do a hard reset to restore the phone to factory settings, then go through the setup process again, including adding a Microsoft account. Before you do that, however, you'll want to back up any information she has on the phone, including contacts, text messages and photos.