Microsoft is wiping your saved passwords on August 1: Here’s what you need to know

You will not be able to access passwords on Windows starting August 1. Microsoft is wiping your saved passwords. Here is why

Starting August 1, Microsoft is quietly pulling the plug on one of its more low-key features: the password manager, built into the Microsoft Authenticator app. If you’ve been storing your non-Microsoft passwords there, you’ll need to move fast. Once the deadline hits, your stored credentials will be permanently deleted. No recovery, no warnings.

Microsoft is wiping your saved passwords starting August 1.

By Boudhaditya Sanyal

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This won’t affect how you log in to your Microsoft account. Your email, OneDrive, or Teams access isn’t going anywhere. What’s being killed is the optional password autofill feature inside the Authenticator app, something Microsoft rolled out to help users keep track of logins across websites and apps. If you’ve used it, your credentials are likely sitting inside that app quietly… until Microsoft wipes them.

Why is Microsoft doing this?

The company’s making a broader push toward passwordless logins. Think facial recognition, fingerprints, PINs, and passkeys. Traditional passwords are the weak link, easy to forget, often reused, and a prime target for phishing attacks. Killing off a feature that relies on old-school password storage helps steer users toward more secure, modern alternatives.

It’s also a way for Microsoft to streamline Authenticator’s purpose. The app already plays a key role in two-factor authentication, but password management is a crowded space with better, dedicated players like 1Password, Dashlane, and Bitwarden.

What should you do right now?

If you’ve never used Authenticator to store passwords, you're good. Nothing changes. But if you have, even if it was just to test the feature, open the app now. Microsoft allows you to export your saved passwords, but only before August 1. After that, it’s gone.

To back things up, go into Authenticator > Settings > Passwords > Export. Save them somewhere secure, or import them into a trusted password manager. Make sure you’re also using up-to-date two-factor authentication for critical accounts.

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