Reset MFA two factor authorization

Question

We are trying to renew our MS License at a local church. We do not have access to the MFA authenticator to renew this. I have tried through recovery to reset the phone number associated with the account. Please advise.

Answer 1

Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

Are you using a personal Microsoft 365 account or an institutional account? If the former, you've pretty much out of luck. Without access to the authenticator or a second way to receive the one-time password, you won't be able to recover the account. Even if you were to connect with Microsoft support, they cannot clear two-factor authentication from the account so you can start over. It is imperative that you never lose access to the authenticator or you lose the account. That's the whole point to using an authenticator.

Answer 2

If you are unable to access the MFA authenticator app to renew your Microsoft license, you will need to have an administrator reset your Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) settings. Here are the steps that the administrator should follow:

1. Sign in to the cloud service portal as an admin.
2. Go to the MFA management page at https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/usermanagement/multifactorverification.aspx.
3. Select the checkbox for the account that needs MFA reset.
4. Click on Manage user settings.
5. Check the box for Require selected users to provide contact methods again and then select Save.

This will prompt the user to go through the MFA registration process again, allowing them to set up a new authenticator method.

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References:

• Can't use Azure Multi-Factor Authentication to sign in to cloud services after you lose your phone or the phone number changes
• Manage user authentication methods for Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication