100% commiseration. A client called me with the same problem recently; he thought he was doing something wrong. I remoted to his PC and I was equally stymied by confusing prompts, and links leading to paths which only looped back to the original page. He contacted Microsoft and waited 6 days for a call back. After another 3 days to and fro with them, he finally got his password reset. I understand Microsoft's advice was to set up multiples of all the MFA methods the account allows. On the bright side, we both learned something. And, maybe this will reduce the number of people who barrage IT for help with thier hacked and hijacked personal Outlook and Hotmail accounts.

Another "vote" for PDF Exchange from Tracker Software. It is a great product, and the support is first-rate for the very inexpensive paid purchased version. I'd recommend trying it with that product and following up with PDF Exchange support if the issue continues using PDF Exchange. Corel is also a great product.