Login failed for user '' because the account is currently locked out. The system administrator can unlock it.

Issue: There are multiple entries in the SQL Server Error log. Also Applications started throwing errors.

Login failed for user 'TEST' because the account is currently locked out. The system administrator can unlock it.

First thing to confirm if the account actually got locked or not, verified properties of the SQL login and under the tab ‘Status’ and noticed “Login is locked out” check box was in ticked state. This confirms account got locked.

Here you can unlock the account by simply unchecking the “Login is locked out” check box  and it will solve the problem. But the catch is if you have ‘Enforce Password Policy’ already checked in ‘General’ tab of SQL login properties  then it will force you to reset the password while unchecking the “Login is locked out” check box .

If you want to UNLOCK the SQL login without resetting the password of SQL login we have 2 options

1.    One way is running below 2 commands:

ALTER LOGIN [TEST] WITH CHECK_POLICY = OFF;

ALTER LOGIN [TEST] WITH CHECK_POLICY = ON;

2.    Un-check the ‘Enforce Password Policy’ option in ‘General’ tab of login properties and click on ‘OK’. Once you do that login gets unlocked. Once the account gets unlocked you can check the ‘Enforce Password Policy’ option in ‘General’ tab again.

Thanks!!