Oh SkyDrive... Why hast thou forsaken me?

After all of the nice things I had to say about SkyDrive today I am greeted by this error on my W8 boxes:

SkyDrive has detected a Microsoft account has been connected to this PC

Click "Ok" to sign in to SkyDrive with the Microsoft account you're using on this PC.

My only options are to "Exit SkyDrive" or "Ok"

Backstory: I have two Microsoft accounts, one for work related and one for personal. The files I want to sync are on my personal account. At work I login with my work account (linked to my work related Microsoft account) and want SkyDrive to sync my personal account's files.

Previously this has not been a problem as the SkyDrive client for Windows lets you sign-in and sync with an account different than the Microsoft account that is linked with your PC login. Now it seems that they want to force you to use only the account that is linked to your PC login.

I want my settings, favorites, metro apps, etc. to sync between the PC logins that I have linked to the related Microsoft account but files to be sync'd between all of my logins using one of my Microsoft accounts. I know my use case is probably rare but c'mon it was working just fine up until whatever they changed in the last 24 hours.

BTW, I don't have this problem on my W7 box where I also have the same account linking going on along with the SkyDrive login mismatch.

I guess it's time to look at g-drive again...

I'd file a complaint with the skydrive team if I were you. My guess is that they didn't think of your specific use-case. The bug site is here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/skydrive?auth=1

Acquiesce and do it MS' way. Resistance is futile

(Sorry - just couldn't resist)

Nervous atmosphere here lately..

38 minutes ago, evildictaitor wrote

I'd file a complaint with the skydrive team if I were you. My guess is that they didn't think of your specific use-case. The bug site is here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/skydrive?auth=1

Done. Thanks.

15 minutes ago, ScottWelker wrote

Acquiesce and do it MS' way. Resistance is futile

(Sorry - just couldn't resist)

Going to have to make a trip to Costco first. My industrial vat of Vaseline is out from all of the butt hurt W8 has caused already. 

31 minutes ago, blowdart wrote

*snip*

That has been brought up by lots of folks internally (most of us have work and personal live, err, Microsoft ids). It wouldn't surprise me if this was fixed by the win8 release.

 

Thanks for the ray of hope. I just wonder why this changed all of a sudden?

More than one Live ID needs to happen for a lot of things. The W8 chat app is great, but I can only use the messenger account that is tied to the microsoft account I logged in with.

@Bas: My fear is that the answer is going to be to have multiple logins on one W8 box. I currently do that now but it's pretty useless for things like the W8 messaging app and other notifications. We live in a mixed world between work and personal and with the up-tick in BYOD that's going to be even more of a problem.

Don't get me wrong; I like the tie-in of login to Windows account but there are certain apps where I'd like to override or add an additional Microsoft account to.

@DeathByVisualStudio:

Are you using the SkyDrive Metro app or the desktop version?

@cbae: Desktop. Wow. Now I understand the magnitude of how stupid you really think I am.

@DeathByVisualStudio:

The desktop version uses the credentials stored in the Control Panel's Credential Manager. Try this:

From your personal PC, go into the Credential Manager and look for "SkyDrive Cached Credential" under "Generic Credentials".

Expand the item, click "Edit", select the User name, copy to clipboard, and email it to yourself, memorize it, or find some other way to get access to this ID from your Windows 8 PC.

From your Windows 8 PC, go ahead and sign in with the Live ID tied to the PC.

Right-click on the SkyDrive icon in the task tray, and Exit.

Then go into the Credential Manager and look for "SkyDrive Cached Credential".

Expand the item, and click "Edit".

Paste in the user name that you emailed yourself, type in the password tied to that Live ID and click "Save".

Open up SkyDrive.

@cbae: That's a pretty clever trick. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately it doesn't work. The same error occurs.

Microsoft was a little more forthcoming:

We had to switch over t a new authentication system to comply with Windows 8 but there was a bug in it that caused this regression. The fix is in but still needs to be deployed to production which should be really soon.

Thanks,

 -Erik

Back to loving the SkyDrive team. Nice transparency. Goes well with blowdart's response. It's back to a "Yeah Microsoft!" day (except for this issue of cancel buttons not working on WPF views when errors are present )

Somebody's ears were burning:  http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/14/microsoft-updates-skydrive-for-windows-app-new-status-window/

Microsoft lies again. With Windows RTM installed and the latest Skydrive client the Unlink account option is unavailable and the setting screen states:

Unlink SkyDrive

This option is unavailable because you're signed in on this PC with a

Microsoft account. If you want to use a different account with SkyDrive,

sign in on this PC with a different Microsoft account or add an account on

this PC with the email address you want to use.

Bug my a$$... More "no compromise" brought to you by Microsoft...

Microsoft hates power users I guess. Bye SkyDrive; it was nice knowing you.

@DeathByVisualStudio: Just out of interest, as one of Microsoft's most ardent opponents on all things Win8, why are you using it?

It seems odd for someone with narry a good thing to say about Win8 to be updating to it within a week of it appearing on MSDN and weeks before general release.

6 minutes ago, DeathBy​VisualStudio wrote

Microsoft lies again.

Bug my a$$... More "no compromise" brought to you by Microsoft...

 

Quelle surprise.

What happens if you don't use a Microsoft account for the Windows login? Using a "normal" Windows account is the right thing to do anyway, trusting "noveau Microsoft" that they will keep these services functionining is risky.

11 minutes ago, evildictait​or wrote

@DeathByVisualStudio: Just out of interest, as one of Microsoft's most ardent opponents on all things Win8, why are you using it?

It seems odd for someone with narry a good thing to say about Win8 to be updating to it within a week of it appearing on MSDN and weeks before general release.

Because I'm a stupidly optimistic guy and believes folks like you here that say Microsoft will make it better.

The litany of real excuses include:

• I've got a Build tablet and want to put it to use.
• I need to get familiar with W8 for customers and determine what our development strategy should be for it.
• I want to be well versed on W8 issues so I can tell my friends & family why they should stay away.

None of which takes away from the fact that Microsoft slowly and assuredly downgraded Live Mesh to Live Sync/Mesh to SkyDrive. I really want Microsoft to "succeed" but they always seem to stick with just the first syllable of the word.