I can't login to my authenticator

Question

I have a new phone and didn't back up the authenticator app like I probably should have in hindsight.
So when I am logging in to my linked Gmail account too it is asking me for the code displayed on my Authenticator app, and it just isn't working cos I'm not logged in to it on my new phone. and it wants me to enter the code from the app to access my Gmail account. I can't sign in the other way either cos as soon as I've entered my login details, guess what? It is asking for the approval from the app I can't see how I will ever be able to get in to it! There is only options to use the Authenticator app. If I were to be able to send a text to my email address for example, that would solve the problem as I can still access the other email address

Answer 1

Hi @Sheila Mosher ,

I am sorry to hear about your challenge. While this response is coming quite a while after you posted this question, I will still post what I think may be the solution to this problem in the event someone else runs into the same issue and needs access to their accounts secured by the MS authenticator app.

My suggestion would be to go through the account recovery process via this link: https://account.live.com/acsr. This can take up to 30 days and is designed to prevent unauthorized people from gaining access to your account.

In the future, please consider setting up additional security verification methods, like a secondary email address or phone number. This way, if you lose access to one method, you can use another to verify your identity.