In Sage 50 Accounts v27 and above, you can have a password up to 32 characters. Older versions of the software only read the first 10 characters of the password.

When you enter your password if you've upgraded from an older version, only enter the first 10 characters. 

  TIP: Sage 50 Accounts passwords can be any combination of letters and numbers without any compulsory requirements.

Use our Windows FIPS encryption is enabled article if you've recently changed your windows encryption settings. 

In the latest version of Sage 50 Accounts, we’ve resolved this issue.  Upgrade using the download and install article.

Or, you can follow the workaround below:

When downgrading from v28.1 to v28.0, you need to remove 2 registry entries before you can access your company data.

1. Click the link below to download the registry file:
   
   • RemoveCipher.28.1.404.reg
2. Open the file in File Explorer, then double-click RemoveCipher.28.1.404.
3. Click Run, then click Yes and click OK.

You've now removed the registry entries and can access your company data. 

When you restore a backup, the password can be different. If they don't work, ensure your software is up to date. For multi-company licences, use the password for the relevant company.

If you're logging in with a username other than Manager, you can ask the Manager user to reset your password. 

 NOTE: If you've upgraded to v27 or above, enter the first 10 characters.  

If there's an issue with the Sage password encryption, you need to uninstall Sage Accounts, remove any Sage.Cryptography files, then re-install Sage Accounts. You can follow the steps in our Reset the Sage password encryption article to do this.

If your issue persists, your setup.dta data file can be corrupt. To resolve this, restore a backup of your data before the issue occurred, and reprocess anything if required.