how to turn off MFA for a specific user

Hello Trevor Bennett

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

1. Disable Per‑User MFA (legacy MFA)

This is the most common place MFA is enabled per account.

Steps

• Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center
• https://entra.microsoft.com
• Go to Identity → Users → All users
• Select Per-user MFA (top menu)
• Find the target user
• Select the user → Disable → Save

Microsoft Docs

Change the MFA status for a user (Per-user MFA)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/howto-mfa-userstates

2. Ensure Security Defaults are disabled (tenant-wide)

If Security Defaults are enabled, MFA cannot be disabled per user.

Steps

Entra admin center → Identity → Overview

Select Properties

Click Manage security defaults

Set Security defaults to Disabled

Save

Microsoft Docs

Security defaults in Microsoft Entra ID

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/security-defaults

3. Exclude the user from Conditional Access policies

If Conditional Access enforces MFA, per-user MFA settings are ignored.

Steps

• Entra admin center → Protection → Conditional Access
• Open each policy that requires Require multifactor authentication
• Under Assignments → Users
• Exclude the specific user (or an exclusion group)
• Save the policy

Microsoft Docs

Conditional Access: Exclude users from policies

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/conditional-access/concept-conditional-access-policies

4. Confirm no Identity Protection policy requires MFA

Risk-based policies can still trigger MFA.

Check

Entra admin center → Protection → Identity Protection

Review Sign-in risk and User risk policies

Ensure the user is excluded (if applicable)

After completing the above steps:

• Sign in as the user in a new browser session
• The user should not be prompted for MFA registration or challenge

Important: MFA can be enforced in multiple places. To fully disable MFA for one user, you must verify all applicable layers.

Please let us know the above steps helps!

Thanks

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