What does Windows error code 8620 (ERROR_NO_SECRETS) mean?

ERROR_NO_SECRETS

The local account store does not contain secret material for the specified account.

ERROR_NO_SECRETS is Windows status 8620 (0x000021AC) associated with secret material for an account in the local account store.

Likely impact: Repeated local password operations cannot reconstruct secret material owned elsewhere.

Typical causes

• the account was created without local secret material.
• credential state belongs to an online provider.
• a clone or restore omitted secret data.
• the caller asks the wrong account authority.

Troubleshooting steps

1. Verify that the authoritative account provider has the credential secret needed for the requested authentication operation.
2. Collect account SID and provider and local SAM or LSA secret presence.

Useful evidence

• Collect online-provider status.
• Collect the exact authentication operation.

Recovery and retry

Route the operation to the authoritative provider or reprovision the account secret through supported account-management flows.

Related errors

ERROR_INCORRECT_ACCOUNT_TYPE explicitly redirects to the proper provider; this code says the local store lacks the requested secret

Example

A cloud-backed account is passed to a local secret operation. Provider metadata shows that authentication must be completed through the online account service.

References

• Microsoft: exact Win32 system error range
• Microsoft: AD DS troubleshooting
• Microsoft: dcdiag
• Microsoft: repadmin