Authenticator phone sign-in set up 'We ran into an error'

Lara Bencini 45

I have successfully added my work account to the Microsoft Authenticator app. When i click on 'Set up phone sign-in' it confirms (green tick) that the device is registered and that screen lock has been set. Upon selecting 'Continue' i get the prompt to verify my sign in, which also works, and then i get the attached screen 'We ran into an error' 'Sorry, we couldn't add your account right now. Please try again later' .. Failed to set up phone sign-in, Failed to set-up notification approvals, Failed to set up one-time password codes etc. Any solutions?

Screenshot_20230627_130548_Authenticator

Joshua Lewin 0 Reputation points

2024-05-03T15:37:22.2033333+00:00

Solution: Azure> Entra> user> "Manage"> Authentication methods > "Require re-register Multifactor authentication"

then login to 365 and wait for the prompt to show up.. Then login on the phone.
André Hoekstra (AD) 5 Reputation points

2024-05-03T18:45:21.3633333+00:00

No, I'm sorry. It is just not supported for multiple accounts on Android. On iOS you can add multiple accounts, just not on Android yet.

7 answers

Jason D 16 Reputation points

2023-08-15T14:13:03.7533333+00:00

Hi I believe I found the solution. Apparently, a Authenticator can only be registered to one Microsoft account and that account is the only one phone sign-in will work for. If the end user works multiple gigs or has their own email for a side hustle they registered then you'll get that error. To check if this is the case open their Authenticator app, go to settings and find 'Device Registration' click on that and you'll see the account the device is currently registered too. If it is the correct account and you're getting the error unregister and try again. If it's a different account but you want another account to using phone-in again unregister and set up phone sign in on the account you want it to be on. Unregistering device doesn't affect any of the mfa accounts if you have multiples.
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3 people found this answer helpful.
Craig Silver 0 Reputation points

2023-08-15T15:20:43.0966667+00:00

That is what I suspected. Unfortunately, I believe my phone must be registered to/managed by my work account in order for me to access company data, like email and Teams messages. Or can you confirm that this is not the case?

Lara Bencini 45 Reputation points

2023-08-21T13:30:22.9066667+00:00

I had deleted all accounts and started from scratch with only my work account and still got the above, so unfortunately in my case the error it is not associated with having multiple accounts.

Andre++ 21 Reputation points

2024-01-25T08:06:44.3533333+00:00

Well, on iPhone/iOS you can add more than one. Just not on Android (yet)

J.McGregor 0 Reputation points

2024-01-25T14:04:10.81+00:00

With Android phones, you are able to add more than one account to Authenticator. Our organization has more than 50% Android users, and we've had no problems adding additional accounts.

Andre++ 21 Reputation points

2024-01-25T14:29:19.53+00:00

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/howto-authentication-passwordless-phone#multiple-accounts-on-ios Gives the impression that that is ony possible on IOS, per our experience. Multiple accounts is no issue. More than one registered for passwordless on Android: not possible to date.
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Hoekstra, AD (André) 15 Reputation points

2023-11-01T13:34:45.2666667+00:00

on iOS you can register multiple accounts, but not (yet) on android.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/howto-authentication-passwordless-phone#multiple-accounts-on-ios
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Alex Siemens 0 Reputation points

2024-08-13T12:20:12.12+00:00

This is the ticket! Once I got rid of my personal account passwordless sign in, I could add my work account. Then when I added my personal again, I ended up with both being passwordless. It's great!
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Dan C 16 Reputation points

2024-01-11T21:20:10.8233333+00:00

For anybody else who comes across this thread, I was able to resolve this issue for myself today. My problem after switching devices was that even though I unregistered my old Android via Authenticator, the phone remained in our org's Entra list of devices. Have your Entra administrator go to the Entra Admin Center > Devices > All Devices, find your old device in the list, and delete it. After a few minutes, try registering your new device again and it should work. Hope that helps!
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mcatk 5 Reputation points

2024-01-24T12:55:14.4733333+00:00

I tried that but still no joy. I am the admin of my own company and i just cannot figure this out. :( Has anybody had any success ? How long did you wait before you tried again ?

Dan C 16 Reputation points

2024-01-24T13:02:39.25+00:00

Sorry to hear that didn't work for you. It only took about 10 minutes before I could register the new device. Good luck!

Freddy 0 Reputation points

2024-02-02T08:22:18.0266667+00:00

Thanks, this worked for me. Cleaned up about 20 devices from the last few years as well on my personal tenant. Tried maybe a minute later and it worked straight away. I was doing this from Settings > Device Registration in the Authenticator app
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Michael Bliss 5 Reputation points

2023-07-07T13:54:50.2733333+00:00

Hi, did you find out what was causing this? Ive got the same happening but only for a few users, most of my users can use phone sign in without issue.
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mcatk 5 Reputation points

2024-01-24T18:59:27.03+00:00

ITS A POLICY!!! https://entra.microsoft.com/#view/Microsoft_AAD_IAM/AdminAuthMethodsBlade?Microsoft_AAD_IAM_legacyAADRedirect=true![1000002480](/api/attachments/70790daa-da31-466b-91d4-e5a4146acf02?platform=QnA)

After enabling this I managed to enable the option in the authenticator !!!
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Andre++ 21 Reputation points

2024-01-25T08:14:02.9866667+00:00

That's only part of it. People with this problem, like myself, still do have the problem even with the policy enabled. Because (in my case) Android Authenticator App only supports passwordless for one account (IOS supports multiple accounts).

Roland Lyngvig 5 Reputation points

2024-11-09T16:23:30.5233333+00:00

I had exactly the same problem in a specific tenant. I have an Android phone. After nearly giving up, I used mcatk link to the Auth Modes and clicked on Microsoft Authenticator. In the most right column the Authentication Mode was set to "Push". I changed it to "Any" to support both Push and Passwordless. And NOW I was able to setup up password less logon after at lest 20 failures before changing this setting.
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Authenticator phone sign-in set up 'We ran into an error'

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