How do I transfer my Microsoft Authenticator app to a new phone without backups or access to the old phone?

Question

My old phone broke and I never set up a backup on the authenticator app before. Now that I have a new phone I cannot access my previous accounts on the authenticator app and I do not have access to the old phone to create a backup. Any help would be appreciated, I called the customer support for microsoft and was told it is a community issue.

Answer 1

You can restore from backup (assuming there was one) but make sure no accounts have been added to the newly install app. Then sign on with recovery account to do the restore.

You can recover your account credentials from your cloud account, but you must first make sure that the account you're recovering doesn't exist in the Microsoft Authenticator app. For example, if you're recovering your personal Microsoft account, you must make sure you don't have a personal Microsoft account already set up in the authenticator app. This check is important so we can be sure we're not overwriting or erasing an existing account by mistake. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/back-up-and-recover-account-credentials-in-the-authenticator-app-bb939936-7a8d-4e88-bc43-49bc1a700a40

Without a backup to restore from the only option is to work with each of the service provider's account recovery methods. The authenticator app is nothing more than a code generator. The two factor is turned on or off at the service provider end.

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