My experience with TurboTax 2019 matches yours. After the return was rejected 3 times, I filed it successfully the first time using FreeTaxUSA with the same prior year AGI. The only difference seemed to be that FreeTaxUSA had a few more questions that clarified the process and explicitly asked for BOTH the PINs submitted in the prior year.
I've used TurboTax before without any problems, but have been deeply disappointed this time. So many filers who are dealing with joint returns in the year their spouse passed have reported the same problem, which has not only been unsolved by TT but made worse by misinformation about having to file by snail mail. I paid over $70 for the TT software, which proved useless in this situation and am greatly annoyed by TT's unwillingness or inability to take responsibility, fix the problem, or offer a refund. I had even signed up for a "membership" that I may drop, since that seems to be the only way to express dissatisfaction in a meaningful way. Wow.
