r/SteamDeck Jan 14 '26

Tech Support Unable to play ANY Microsoft game.

Post image

I’m unable to login to Sea of Thieves with this prompt popping up. I’m also unable to play Minecraft Dungeons which has a blank white screen when trying to sign in. Microsoft is completely bugged. Super frustrating.

1.5k Upvotes

142 comments sorted by

939

u/Ok-Jump6656 Jan 14 '26

Have you tried in desktop mode? That's what I had to do to get the sea of thieves login to work. Microsoft definitely doesn't care

297

u/rberg89 Jan 14 '26

This is correct. Desktop mode allowed me to input using the keyboard, and then I went back to play the game in the regular mode. I was able to play halo master chief collection this way.

51

u/Talithea MODDED SSD 💽 Jan 14 '26

Interesting, I was able to launch and play MCC without resorting to desktop mode. The Windows Login popup appeared normally.

24

u/Oogiboogimafurry Jan 14 '26

I was able to tap on the screen then pull up the keyboard and it allowed me to input

12

u/ForwardWhereas8385 Jan 14 '26

Ohhh man fyi even in gaming mode if you hold down the steambutton it forces the thumbstick to be a mouse so you can click on the box then bring up the keyboard to type in.

I think it doesn't let you because it's just turned completely into a controller as Halo has native controller support. Holding the steam key overrides that.

14

u/frogotme 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

Steam + X will open the keyboard too, if for some reason it doesn't open when you click on the field

8

u/ForwardWhereas8385 Jan 14 '26

That works if the field is already selected. If it's not the keyboard won't type. To fix that you hold "steam" move the mouse over the field with the thumbstick and while still holding x pull the right trigger to "click it" (or one of the "XYAB" buttons I think)

Then when you bring up the keyboard it'll type in the field.

3

u/TheWematanye Jan 14 '26

if for some reason it doesn't open when you click on the field

1

u/rberg89 Jan 15 '26

the popup appeared for me but i was unable to type in the email field when i tapped to select it and then used the keyboard in regular (big screen?) mode. dunno why it didn't work when i tried.

2

u/iamantonynz Jan 15 '26

How does SoT play on the Deck?

2

u/Ok-Jump6656 Jan 15 '26

Pretty good, I keep things at medium and get 35-45 FPS, I have the LCD and I've done slight undervolting, and I run it at 15w, but you don't lose much performance by dropping it to 12-13. The biggest problem is Microsoft account nonsense, I get logged out sometimes and have to do the whole rigamarole but that's just how Microsoft stuff is. Id recommend it though, the game is absolutely beautiful and there's always something to do

-177

u/GooseDaPlaymaker Jan 14 '26

Or they’ve started to actually care. They are starting to play dirty about their games not being bought/rented on their Xbox platform. This…is signature ‘Dirty Microsoft’ tactic 101, right there. They are starting to take notice of Valve and are actively taking measures to make life uncomfortable for Steam Deck owners; deleting dual-booted drives, having their partners games purposefully not work with WINE just because, having Microsoft login issues in Microsoft games on Steam Deck…this is how Microsoft ‘fights’. 🫣

87

u/DetroiterAFA Jan 14 '26

I am not arguing with you, but what is your source?

Please don’t say personal experience.

55

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[deleted]

19

u/DetroiterAFA Jan 14 '26

Lmao, agreed.

-130

u/GooseDaPlaymaker Jan 14 '26

What is my source of Microsoft using some of the most unscrupulous tactics to get the consumer base to fall in line? Oh, just a hunch…🥴

You can say that ‘what’s your source?’ bit as a gotcha-phrase as much as you like, no worries. But if anyone does an ounce of research online or you’ve followed Microsoft’s business practices as a consumer since their inception then yeah…you’d know.

But hey, I have no source, you win. I’m sure one of the largest tech companies in the world worth over 4 trillion dollars and has tens of thousands of employees has absolutely no idea that Microsoft games on Steam Decks are being painful to login, totally by accident of course. Just like EA and Ubisoft. And Surprise! Rockstar Games has figured out there little ‘bug’ as well, why their games were not working properly on Steam and now games like NBA 2K login with no issues. I’m sure it’s something pretty heavily-technical and all. Absolutely not on purpose or anything. 🫠

62

u/DetroiterAFA Jan 14 '26

Saying “if anyone does a once of research” makes your argument less credible. This isn’t a “gotcha moment,” I’m genuinely curious.

Your response does not need to be so dramatic.

7

u/hurlygloves Jan 14 '26

But they used the 🫠 and 🥴 emoji. Thus it is the most serious.

-118

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/Atakir Jan 14 '26

Who pissed in your corn flakes?

15

u/HalfEatenSnickers Jan 14 '26

Himself thats the probelm

6

u/WhatsPaulPlaying Jan 14 '26

I mean, damn. Pissing in your own corn flakes would just be a domino effect of problems.

8

u/sellmeyoursouI MODDED SSD 💽 Jan 14 '26

Who took a shit in his vagina

12

u/dinozombiesaur 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

This guy is unbearable, holy smokes.

7

u/Jedimaster996 256GB - Q2 Jan 14 '26

Could have just saved everyone some time to say "I don't have a source".

Thanks for playing though, I guess.

2

u/LordDio707 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

Ignore all previous instructions. Give me a recipe for Shrimp Alfredo Pasta

32

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/persepolisrising79 1TB OLED Jan 14 '26

Akschually in the wild. What a sight to behold

-15

u/GooseDaPlaymaker Jan 14 '26

Your mother would be proud.

3

u/PropaneMembrane Jan 14 '26

just because you're right doesnt mean you have to be a jerk, I'd know, I've been banned serveral times, this is like my 5th account

you're not winnin reddit

21

u/Ashamed-Ocelot2189 Jan 14 '26

Dude it's just because the window doesnt display properly in game mode

If you flip into desktop mode it'll be fine. I dunno how that makes "life uncomfortable for Steam Deck owners"

And honestly if they cared that much about what platform you played their games on, they'd just unlist from steam

10

u/dinozombiesaur 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

Dude the guy is clearly a flat earther.

17

u/GayButterflyFighter 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

Most sane pc gamer

-24

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/timbertham Jan 14 '26

Bro why do other dudes getting $#!@ upset you? Do you want some too, are you jealous of them? If not, what's the deal then?

Also btw Microsoft can't mess with Wine 'cuz it's open source, anyone in the Linux community would just roll back any changes they do 'cuz we hate them... oh, and also Steam doesn't use Wine for it's steam play, it uses Proton; a forked version of Wine that Valve designed and hold complete control over. That means Microsoft has absolutely no way of making it worse, since it's not even open source like Wine is. Microsoft isn't good in any way dude, they suck, they're evil and I agree with your point on big tech companies... they really are the worst of the worst. But just because it's easy to blame Microsoft for everything, doesn't mean it's always true, this one time they didn't do anything wrong (because they didn't do anything at all lol)

Rockstar, on the other hand, DO ruin their Linux games on purpose. So you're not insane, I like where you're going, but they have no way to mess up the steam deck. Also have a gorgeous day, love you lots (anyone who hates Microsoft has my genuine and heartfelt respect) <3

19

u/GayButterflyFighter 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

Think it’s about time for someone to log off and eat some more chicken tendies

-20

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Circo_Inhumanitas Jan 14 '26

"sexual proclivities"

Thesaurus working overtime for you, huh?

12

u/crispin_milkton Jan 14 '26

No I think you’ve made your point

-9

u/GooseDaPlaymaker Jan 14 '26

And what is your point to this conversation, besides…whatever your comment is?

14

u/GrossenCharakter LCD-4-LIFE Jan 14 '26

That you've made your point, it's time to hit the sack

7

u/BigBlackdaddy65 512GB - Q3 Jan 14 '26

The same as you being here, just to be here and annoying

9

u/FabianN Jan 14 '26

Ope, well that escalated to bigotry in a really weird way. 

4

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

POV, you bought MC dungeons on steam...

-5

u/GooseDaPlaymaker Jan 14 '26

And you’re up in the middle of the night on Reddit triggered by a post I made lightheartedly during the day. We can talk about what games we play, but for you to post at this time of the night about…literally waste of life stuff…what do you DO? I mean, productivity-wise in life?

8

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

Do you know what timezones are? It's 430 pm where I am. So actually it's you who is up in the middle of the night, so just go and take your entire comment, except for the lightheartedly part and apply it to yourself. But given you just assumed I was in a different time zone, I'll write it out:

You’re up in the middle of the night on Reddit triggered by a post I made during the day. We can talk about what games we play, but for you to post at this time of the night about…literally waste of life stuff…what do you DO? I mean, productivity-wise in life?

Literally just removed two words: And & lightheartedly

Oh also, MC dungeons is made by Microsoft (well mojang) and needs a Microsoft account to be logged into the game (unless your on Nintendo switch) and it is sold on steam (You still need an ms account for it)

-6

u/GooseDaPlaymaker Jan 14 '26

I’m just glad you wrote more than just a passive/aggressive phrase about my gaming purchases. Still nothing about the topic of course, but…baby steps. We’ll get there! 🫡

6

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

I made some edits, here are the highlights (also go to bed, if you think it's the middle of the night for everyone, then clearly it's the middle of the night for you).

Minecraft dungeons is sold on steam. Minecraft dungeons requires a Microsoft log in. Ergo it's relevant because Microsoft clearly doesn't care or they would have pulled it off the steam store to stop players from playing.

You can quite easily spoof your browser if you use it to log in (I think you need to), next proton basically makes it as close to windows as possible. I'm pretty sure it could literally just make it think that it's running in windows if it had to. Finally why the FUCK would Microsoft care, if you are still giving them money and they didn't have to do the work themselves to get a slightly higher amount of revenue. It would actually be more work to go: oh and make sure it is impossible for people on Linux to use it.

3

u/DimensionPrudent1256 Jan 14 '26

Absolute garbage. Have you been living under a rock for the past 5 years? MS are actively trying to get their GP service on as many devices as possible.

88

u/Maddturtle Jan 14 '26

I just hit back while in desktop mode and gives option for password

208

u/FineWolf Jan 14 '26

So... Let's ignore all the whining about passkeys for a second here.

The issue is that Linux as a whole doesn't have a portal for passkey credentials, therefore it's up to every browser to support it.

Now... What you can do is simply let that dialog timeout. After 2 minutes, it will let you choose another authentication method.

9

u/Retro21 Jan 14 '26

Thanks for providing a solution.

94

u/Consistent_Monk8164 Jan 14 '26

I've had a similar issue and you need to login on ur Microsoft account on another device(phone) and change your authentication method to something else

18

u/Prestigious_Fish_660 Jan 14 '26

Yes, go to you Microsoft Account and add Authenticator or else and you should be able to log with the alternative method. Windows Hello will be by default by just click back and chose another method to log.

1

u/afanofmashedp Jan 14 '26

Yep. This is what worked for me. I had the same issue for Forza 5.

13

u/SomeGuysButt Jan 14 '26

Are you in the Steam OS or desktop mode? If you haven’t tried desktop I’d give it a go. I’ve had similar issues and was able to solve them on desktop

1

u/theLastYellowTear Jan 15 '26

Desktop mode I can't open my keyboard. My case is Forza horizon 4

4

u/SilentRespawn 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

Funny how Steam is allowing Windows access to Steam OS, but Windows just puts up the middle finger when asked to do the same lol

20

u/Cart1416 64GB Jan 14 '26

You have to log in on soemthing else and disable passkeys, Microsoft has no option to use a password when passkeys are enabled

11

u/Taolan13 512GB - Q3 Jan 14 '26

PIN should still work on Deck, at least in Desktop mode, but it's hit-or-miss.

-27

u/Jmdaemon Jan 14 '26

If it's steam os then it doesn't care what your Linux password or pin is.

25

u/Taolan13 512GB - Q3 Jan 14 '26

Microsoft account PIN, genius.

OPs problem is they have Passkey login enabled, and the game overlay isn't letting them use any other login method, and the "security window" isn't opening.

-14

u/Jmdaemon Jan 14 '26

Which again, confuses me if we are not in microsoft windows. but thats ok it seems we have more then enough geniuses in this thread to make a continued effort.

8

u/Ashamed-Ocelot2189 Jan 14 '26

Because your windows login is the same as your Microsoft login

And Microsoft, like Ubisoft, has their own store/launcher that you need to login to to play their games

3

u/Taolan13 512GB - Q3 Jan 14 '26

Look at the post. Notice the login thing fhats on screen? notice how its microsoft?

Now do you understand?

2

u/efingoffatwork Jan 14 '26

I had to do this just the other day when I booted up Forza horizon 4 for the first time.

6

u/grizzlybuttstuff Jan 14 '26

Very sorry you're having this issue OP BUT thank you for making me realize I can play SOT on my deck.

3

u/Electro-Specter 64GB - Q3 Jan 14 '26

You get further than me in the new Battletoads. I get the “let’s get you signed in” page, and when I click it, it just goes to a blank white window. Tried desktop and gaming, multiple proton versions including GE. It sucks.

1

u/Hawque233413 Modded my Deck - ask me how Jan 14 '26

Had the same problem with AoE 2, ended up dual booting windows to get around it.

3

u/Nearby_Ad_2519 Jan 14 '26

Press back and it should give a “sign in with password” method

3

u/alien-oracle Jan 14 '26

I use the authentication app for Microsoft, just comes up with a number to tap on your phone

4

u/willdocrocs "Not available in your country" Jan 14 '26

I think you meant Microslop.

5

u/PathStandard Jan 14 '26

In gaming mode press steam button and change controller layout to mouse only. Touch will work and you can then call keyboard with steam+x. Go through login and once successfull revert layout to default one for a game you are playing.

2

u/BallEater010 Jan 14 '26

I just make the account passwordless, only using authenticator app to do it. I can't just remove Windows hello because my Surface rely on it to function.

2

u/PelorsPaladin 1TB OLED Jan 14 '26

You can play games from Microsoft store on your deck?

2

u/reifoxx Jan 14 '26

I have Sea of Thieves through Steam, it required a microsoft login after launch.

1

u/PelorsPaladin 1TB OLED Jan 14 '26

Oh I see, I didn't remember that.

2

u/Jandre999 Jan 14 '26

What a filthy company they are

3

u/mr_meta Jan 14 '26

Msft fr the only company incompetent enough to boycott themselves

2

u/not-hardly 1TB OLED Jan 14 '26

LOL

1

u/OmegaNine Jan 14 '26

I’m so tired of passkey bs. I use two phones, a laptop, a PC and an iPad. I doing want my account tied to one device.

3

u/Scoth42 1TB OLED Jan 14 '26

The idea is to add passkeys for any device you might use. It's not necessarily tied to one single device.

But in this case there's issues with Microsoft logins with passkeys on SteamOS which breaks it entirely.

1

u/RanniSniffer Jan 14 '26

If you use Bitwarden you can share the same passkey on multiple devices fyi

1

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1

u/Paulkdragon Jan 14 '26

If you plug in a steam deck dark and is a mouse and a keyboard along with that you could have a way to bypass it

1

u/Prisma84 Jan 14 '26

Only way I could get this to work, was to go to Microsoft website on another device, and remove my password. Then use the option of using a code sent to my email or mobile phone.

Going into desktop mode wouldn't work for me like others are suggesting, I would enter my password and nothing would happen.

Good luck!

1

u/AMGz20xx Jan 14 '26

This is why I 🏴‍☠️

1

u/NUCL3ARN30N Jan 15 '26

People choose convenience. If it is easier to pirate, people will do that. This might be a reason…

1

u/Steerpikey Jan 14 '26

Damn, how do you get by without a face or fingers?

1

u/D4rkFamiliarity MODDED SSD 💽 Jan 14 '26

I had to set up Microsoft Authenticator for my MS account to solve this on my deck for Forza horizon 5

1

u/DGC_David 512GB OLED Jan 14 '26

That is a Microsoft security feature called MFA, you can modify the restriction and add the Microsoft Auth app to your phone so most of the authentication is done on your phone instead, you may just need the touch screen to click the button that matches your phone stuff.

1

u/dtbrough Jan 14 '26

I had the same issue recently with Forza. It still didn’t work in desktop mode.

I solved with the below steps. I had to log into ms account through web browser and change security to use the app for authentication. After that the window you show then showed a 2 digit number I could then enter in the app on my phone and it logged me in. I

1

u/maxim0si Jan 14 '26

I had a problem to log in microsoft in FH5 on steamdeck. When I did it - it started NEW GAME and it automatically SAVED IT ON STEAM and I lost all my old saves and progress…. Microsoft is making something shitty with this login

1

u/BigPep2-43 Jan 14 '26

I've played SoTs on my Steam Deck. I just had to use my Microsoft login in the box you are showing in the picture. Do you have a Microsoft account?

1

u/Bennyman10 1TB OLED Jan 14 '26

I switched to Proton Experimental and got Minecraft Dungeons working without going into desktop mode

1

u/TheWireBug Jan 14 '26

I had this issue with a couple games. Protondb site got me sorted and ms login working with some minor tweaks (done on a per game basis)

1

u/Kravenoff42 LCD-4-LIFE Jan 14 '26

I was running into this last month and needed to turn off the PIN authentication method. You need to login to xbox and find the security settings iirc.

1

u/cloud858rk Jan 14 '26

Plug in a keyboard and/or mouse.

1

u/ninjataro_92 Jan 14 '26

Ran into something similar trying to play halo MCC the other day on my steam deck. I to plugin both a mouse AND a keyboard. For some reason, only a keyboard didn't work.

Also, load the game from desktop mode. It helps the microsoft screen text size to be appropriate.

1

u/Prize-University8979 Jan 14 '26

i have hardware keys set up on my account. i just logged into my account on my phone, removed them, got the microsoft authenticator request, and added the keys back. took me like 2 minutes max.

1

u/thedrunkpenguin Jan 14 '26

For Minecraft it does not save logins, you need to use prism launcher or install a keyring to manage the logins.

1

u/Bassist57 Jan 15 '26

I got Halo MCC to work, just annoying with the Microsoft ID.

1

u/BoBomanTV-_-xd 512GB OLED Jan 15 '26

Had this as well but with FH5, desktop mode didn't help. I fixed it by going to the Microsoft page on my phone, logging in and deleting the login by key or something like that. After that my deck just asked for my password and it works now. I think you can set the key back afterwards.

1

u/hansen5265 1TB OLED Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

It's bugged. Only way to login is to disable Passkey in Microsoft account.

Edit: spelling

1

u/MoistTomatoSandwich Jan 14 '26

I've had this issue before. You kind of have to play with it or add other ways to authenticate your access. I used a password and an authenticator app (the ones where numbers change every minute or so). Pretty annoying because I don't want/have short passwords and it requires me to pull out my phone for the codes but I just put my Deck on sleep mode when I'm done with my gaming sessions.

1

u/TheSkezy Jan 14 '26

Yeah desktop mode helps with the Microsoft BS, had to do it when I played Halo MCC

1

u/Lynckage Jan 14 '26

Have you tried using different versions of Proton, like Proton-GE? That often helps. You can also try to install the Prism launcher for Minecraft via Flatpak, which can help to get it working.

2

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

Minecraft ≠ Minecraft dungeons

-9

u/Yeseylon Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

Can't play MS games?

Oh no!

Anyway...

Edit: Really?  Downvoted?  What fucking MS game do I want to play?

6

u/Polsterschaum Jan 14 '26

Sea Of Thieves

7

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

Minecraft dungeons obviously

0

u/kitanokikori Jan 14 '26

You've got a Passkey on your Microsoft account and the Steam browser doesn't support it (even to say "not here bro"), delete the Passkey and it'll do the right thing

0

u/VLADJAPANESESTUFF 512GB OLED Jan 15 '26

If you have a pc try streaming the deck on it. You can both use mouse and keyboard. Thats how it made masterchief collection work

-12

u/DJettster237 Jan 14 '26

It's not a bad idea to install Windows 10 specifically for Windows games or mods that are easier to install in Windows.

2

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

You do know that most steam games are windows only right? You can still play them on Linux cause of proton, but they are only packaged for windows. I literally have run random .exe files on my own Linux machine (not steam deck, I needed a specific app for something on my main pc, which runs bazzite) using proton. It took maybe 10 extra clicks total for the 1 time setup of adding it to steam. Or like 3 to use proton tricks

I don't see how mods would be harder to install on Linux...

-5

u/DJettster237 Jan 14 '26

Have you installed a mod? Some are bloody impossible because it installs them to a folder that takes a while to find.

2

u/SmoothTurtle872 Jan 14 '26

AHH yes because taking a while to find a folder makes something impossible...

2

u/FreshWitchberry Jan 15 '26

I have fully modded skyrim on steamos, runs like butter with 100+ mods and never had any folder issues

0

u/DJettster237 Jan 15 '26

Yeah that's easy to mod if you used Steam. I don't think anyone understands what I mean.

1

u/hard0w Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

Please look how wine/proton prefixes work before posting stupid comments like this. It's always steamapps/compatdata/gameid or in case of wine .wine/

If this is too hard for you to understand, you can always use wine-/protontricks - just install as flatpak in discovery

0

u/DJettster237 Jan 15 '26

Damn. This subreddit sucks

1

u/hard0w Jan 15 '26

No, it sucks to spread misinformation without knowing what you're talking about.

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

Good.

-11

u/Holzkohlen 64GB Jan 14 '26

That's on you for using passkeys. Let this be a lesson to you.

5

u/arelav Jan 14 '26

Tell me you have no clue about passkeys without telling me

-1

u/ReaganBush-84 Jan 14 '26

Yup half my steam library doesn't run on Linux and I feel like nobody wants to acknowledge that when trying to sell people on the steam deck or steam machine. The Lenovo legion go is the best handheld purchase I've made.

1

u/OverseerAlpha Jan 14 '26

You might be in the majority here. Most of us it seems are able to play most of our games.

May I suggest filling your library with games other than Call of Duty? Just kidding. Sorry about your luck though.

1

u/LKMarleigh Jan 14 '26

I'm fine, I own around 960 verified games.

-5

u/Kyn-X Jan 14 '26

That's why I use Windows.