Login problems: the complete checklist, in the order that finds the cause

Failed logins feel like one problem and are at least five: wrong credentials, a dead recovery channel, a second-factor trap, an account that no longer exists, or a browser that's lying to you. The checklist below splits them in minutes, ordered so that each step either finds the cause or eliminates a layer.

Layer one: the browser is innocent until proven guilty

Before anything clever: is caps lock on? (Still the champion.) Then try the same login in a private window — password managers' autofill quietly submitting a saved old password is the single most common false "wrong password" in existence. If the private window works, clear the saved entry and triage the browser. If your manager holds the credential, log into the manager itself and copy it manually — and if the manager's copy also fails, you've just proven the problem is at the account, which is progress.

Layer two: credentials vs account

"Incorrect password" on a manual, carefully typed attempt means the reset flow, and only that: the reset walkthrough covers it — including the golden rule that the reset email arriving (or not) is itself diagnostic. "No account found for this email" is a different animal entirely: the account lives under another address (an old one, an alias, a sign-up-with-Google/Apple identity instead of a password). Try the provider's sign-in-with buttons before concluding anything — half of "I lost my account" is "my account has no password because it never needed one."

Layer three: the second factor

2FA failures have their own short list: SMS codes not arriving — wait one full cycle (carriers delay, don't drop), then check whether the number on the account is still yours; a changed SIM or an old number is the classic dead end, which is why an authenticator app beats SMS the day you set it up. Authenticator app codes rejected — check the phone's clock: time-based codes die on a skewed clock (enable automatic time). Lost the device entirely — this is what the recovery codes were for at setup; no recovery codes and no second device means account-recovery support, and the provider will verify you slowly and thoroughly. That slowness is the feature working.

Layer four: when the account itself is the problem

Suspected compromise changes the order: go straight to the provider's account-recovery flow from a clean browser, change the password from wherever you get in first, then review active sessions and connected apps. And a password manager changes the arithmetic in your favour everywhere else — the honest comparison — because "which of my forty passwords did I use here" stops being a question you have to guess under pressure. One warning to close on: login problems make people pliable, and phishing knows it — a "support agent" offering to fix your login over chat or email is the attack, not the cure. Support comes from the provider's own site, typed by you (the link-checking habit).