How do I get unlocked from the authenticator loop of despair?

Question

Hi, thank you for your attention.

I am currently locked out of two accounts because I cannot use the authenticator app.

The accounts have been "greyed-out" in MA and the app sends me into the same basic sign in (which requires authenticator, hints the loop). I have tried every option and it seems like something on the back end needs to be reset.

@Raja Pothuraju

Answer 1

Hello kyle kraeft,

I see you have mentioned affected email address as one is school, and another one is work account. When I checked on my end, I see there are multiple global administrator user accounts are there in the tenant. As you are not able to login into your work or school account due to incomplete of MFA. In this situation, you need to contact your other Global administrator to reset your MFA registration. This is not something tenant lockout scenario to involve Data Protection team as these tenants have active global administrator who can help you to reset your MFA.

Please share these steps with your IT team or admin team to reset your MFA.

To manage user settings, complete the following steps:

1.Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least an Authentication Administrator.

2.Browse to Identity > Users > All users.

3.Choose the user you wish to perform an action on and select Authentication methods. At the top of the window, then choose “Require re-register MFA” options for the user.

Then you can login back to any office application and register with new MFA auth method.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/howto-mfa-userdevicesettings#manage-user-authentication-options