Not Receiving Verification Code for Account Recovery in Microsoft Authenticator (Android)

Question

Not Receiving Verification Code for Account Recovery in Microsoft Authenticator (Android)

Albert L 40

Hi everyone,

I'm having trouble recovering my account in the Microsoft Authenticator app on Android.

I recently set up cloud backup using my Microsoft personal account.

After creating the backup, I factory reset my phone (Samsung S21) and reinstalled the Microsoft Authenticator app from the Play Store.

When I launch the app and choose "Begin recovery", I enter the email address linked to my personal Microsoft account.

The app states that it sent a verification code to my email, but I never receive the code, despite trying over 10 times in the last 3 days.

I've confirmed that the email address is correct and have checked all folders including junk/spam, but no luck.

Has anyone experienced this issue or know how I can proceed with the recovery? Attached are the screenshot for reference. Thanks in advance for your help.

ms-auth

Reza-Ameri 17,341 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-06-12T20:09:06.55+00:00

Hi,

Are you able to login to the email?

Have you check the Junk folder?
Albert L 40 Reputation points

2025-06-12T20:16:03.8533333+00:00

Thanks for your reply.

Just to clarify, I can access my Microsoft account because I’ve set up SMS as a secondary method for two-factor authentication. However, when trying to recover my Authenticator app using the "Begin recovery" option, I still don’t receive the verification email—despite checking both my inbox and junk folder multiple times over the past few days.

Appreciate your help so far. If you have any other suggestions or steps I might have missed, I'd be grateful to hear them.
Shakir 10 Reputation points

2025-06-17T12:27:50.01+00:00

Hi,

I am also experiencing the same problem but Laptop (Windows 11)

I have a Microsoft account (@hotmail.com) through which i am using Onedrive & Microsoft Teams which are synced with my laptop for a real time files/folders sync.

Recently i enabled password & pin to login to this very same Laptop, earlier it didn’t had any password/pin to login , what I noticed is that after enabling this sign-in password to access laptop ,the MS teams & Onedrive got auto logged out and when i am trying to login , it further attempts to send verification code to my @hotmail.com email account but that’s not happening despite multiple attempts.

Its triggering an email but i am not receiving any email /code, i have checked all blocked emails, junk folder, did basic troubleshooting after reading similar Q&As on verification issues & blogs but could not resolve this.
Albert L 40 Reputation points

2025-06-17T16:35:46.4166667+00:00

Hi Shakir,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I had previously configured my account to use password + SMS authentication for login so it always ask for a "code". Later, I added the "authenticator app" sign-in method using a different TOTP client (i.e. Aegis authenticator) and enforced 2FA login.

Now, when I attempt to "Begin recovery" via Microsoft Authenticator, it prompts me to authenticate with email, password, and a 2FA token. I can proceed to the next step, but I receive a message indicating that no cloud backup is stored on this account (see the attachment for details).

Given this situation, I believe the backup/recovery process is quite unreliable, and I’m concerned that I might permanently lose access to my account keys.

Thanks again for your suggestion—I appreciate your insights!
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Marek 6 Reputation points

2025-06-23T12:27:18.7+00:00

Hello, I have the same issue like Albert, but with my MS authenticator app running on iPhone.

I'm using dozens OTP codes and I don't want to re-register to each service, because Microsoft has problem with sending verification email for two weeks. This seems like Microsoft has technical problems with email sending and nobody is able to fix it for several weeks.

The same problem here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2280321/authenticator-not-sending-email-verification-code

p.s. I don't care about MS business accounts stored there in authenticator. They'll be fixed by our IT team. The main problem is reliability of backup/restore function of such critical 2FA tool.

Accepted answer

1 additional answer

Your answer

Reza-Ameri 17,341 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-06-12T20:09:06.55+00:00

Hi,

Are you able to login to the email?

Have you check the Junk folder?
Albert L 40 Reputation points

2025-06-12T20:16:03.8533333+00:00

Thanks for your reply.

Just to clarify, I can access my Microsoft account because I’ve set up SMS as a secondary method for two-factor authentication. However, when trying to recover my Authenticator app using the "Begin recovery" option, I still don’t receive the verification email—despite checking both my inbox and junk folder multiple times over the past few days.

Appreciate your help so far. If you have any other suggestions or steps I might have missed, I'd be grateful to hear them.
Shakir 10 Reputation points

2025-06-17T12:27:50.01+00:00

Hi,

I am also experiencing the same problem but Laptop (Windows 11)

I have a Microsoft account (@hotmail.com) through which i am using Onedrive & Microsoft Teams which are synced with my laptop for a real time files/folders sync.

Recently i enabled password & pin to login to this very same Laptop, earlier it didn’t had any password/pin to login , what I noticed is that after enabling this sign-in password to access laptop ,the MS teams & Onedrive got auto logged out and when i am trying to login , it further attempts to send verification code to my @hotmail.com email account but that’s not happening despite multiple attempts.

Its triggering an email but i am not receiving any email /code, i have checked all blocked emails, junk folder, did basic troubleshooting after reading similar Q&As on verification issues & blogs but could not resolve this.
Albert L 40 Reputation points

2025-06-17T16:35:46.4166667+00:00

Hi Shakir,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I had previously configured my account to use password + SMS authentication for login so it always ask for a "code". Later, I added the "authenticator app" sign-in method using a different TOTP client (i.e. Aegis authenticator) and enforced 2FA login.

Now, when I attempt to "Begin recovery" via Microsoft Authenticator, it prompts me to authenticate with email, password, and a 2FA token. I can proceed to the next step, but I receive a message indicating that no cloud backup is stored on this account (see the attachment for details).

Given this situation, I believe the backup/recovery process is quite unreliable, and I’m concerned that I might permanently lose access to my account keys.

Thanks again for your suggestion—I appreciate your insights!
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.
Marek 6 Reputation points

2025-06-23T12:27:18.7+00:00

Hello, I have the same issue like Albert, but with my MS authenticator app running on iPhone.

I'm using dozens OTP codes and I don't want to re-register to each service, because Microsoft has problem with sending verification email for two weeks. This seems like Microsoft has technical problems with email sending and nobody is able to fix it for several weeks.

The same problem here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2280321/authenticator-not-sending-email-verification-code

p.s. I don't care about MS business accounts stored there in authenticator. They'll be fixed by our IT team. The main problem is reliability of backup/restore function of such critical 2FA tool.

Answer 1

Austin-H 3,040 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Albert L,

Thank you for raising question to Microsoft Q&A.

Understanding that the verification email is not coming already, may I know if you have tried to change the method of verification for the account you are trying to get access to? As the email address is @hotmail.com, it's pretty hard to track down if the verification ever came to that email. As I am the forum moderator, I do not have the access to internal database to support you with this.

If your Microsoft Authenticator does not have too many accounts before its factory reset - the only way I could say is that you could try with other verification methods.

Please also note that: The backup-restore function just brings back the account lists (For example: you have 6 accounts before factory reset, then it will bring back 6 accounts after restoration process) but not the actual MFA - which means when you try to sign in, those MFA will not pop up. If those accounts in your Microsoft Authenticator are business accounts, you will need to contact the IT Admin/someone who has Global Administrator to reset the MFA for you following this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/howto-mfa-userdevicesettings.

I have been in this situation many times - and decided not to rely on Backup-restore function as it will not recover the actual MFA whenever you are trying to sign-in.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Albert L 40 Reputation points

2025-06-13T09:08:18.5366667+00:00

Thanks for your reply.

As shown in my screenshot, I’m afraid there doesn’t seem to be any option to proceed using an alternative verification method. Although I have full access to my Microsoft personal account (the @hotmail.com one, via SMS-based 2FA), it appears that the Authenticator app’s recovery process requires the email verification specifically, which unfortunately isn't working in my case.

Before the reset, I had around 10 accounts registered in the Authenticator app—most of them using standard TOTP (QR code) for OTP generation. I was hoping those could be restored from the cloud backup, but without the email code, the recovery can't proceed.

I also have a few business accounts, so I’ll follow up with my IT admins to get those reset.

It’s a bit disappointing that the restore mechanism isn't functioning as expected. If I can’t recover these accounts, I may have to consider using a different authenticator app for non-Microsoft accounts going forward.

Thanks again for taking the time to assist.
Austin-H 3,040 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-17T00:12:00.6533333+00:00

Hi @Albert L,

Thank you for your reply again.

If I were you, I would also feel the same as the restore function is not working as expected. However, I will pass this feedback to the internal team so they could have a look in this in the future.

If you find my initial response partially helpful, please mark it as "Yes" so it could be referenced for future similar questions related to Backup - Restore function.
Albert L 40 Reputation points

2025-06-17T16:43:06.5333333+00:00

Hi Austin,

Thank you for taking the time to pass this issue along to the Microsoft team—I really appreciate it.

I’ve marked your initial response as the answer, even though I’m still unable to recover the accounts. I will try again later and see if the recovery issue is fixed. Hopefully, this feedback will help improve the backup and restore functionality in the future.

Much appreciate your help!
Austin-H 3,040 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-18T02:55:41.93+00:00

Hi @Albert L,

Thank you for your feedback.

As for now, please proceed to contact your IT team if you no longer have access to old devices so that they could help you reset MFA.

Assuming that you still have access to current accounts, you could go to https://myaccount.microsoft.com for every single business account to remove old devices and at the same time add your new phone - this would guarantee the transition with Authenticator between devices.
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Answer 2

elkana the king one 0

kode verifikasi tidak dikirim

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Not Receiving Verification Code for Account Recovery in Microsoft Authenticator (Android)

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