Microsoft Authenticator App Activating account issue

Question

Hi, when I'm trying to Add work account on the authenticator app it stuck after scanning QR code and says: Activating. Please wait... but nothing happen until the QR code expires. Reinstalling the app didn't help. Please advise how to fix it.

Answer 1

I had the same problem, and I finally managed to get it solved!

It is a problem with the internet. I switched from my router Wi-Fi to my modem Wi-Fi, and the app worked. In like 2 seconds the please wait... message was gone and I was asked to confirm the account.

So it has something to do with the internet settings of the network.
Don't know how exactly.

Answer 2

I found the rootcause. The solution is: disable IPv6 on your phone or router. Alternatively if you can't do that, try setting the phone's IPv6 DNS address to Google's public DNS.

The issue is that initially the app does everything through IPv4, but during the final step it prefers to try IPv6, and you get 2 minutes of DNS timeout, and then unknown error. So, if you don't have IPv6 internet working properly, the app appears that it worked fine until registration and then hanged at this dialog.

Caveats: there might be a hidden counter of ~3 attempts to register per day. If this solution didn't work immediately, retry on the next day.

Answer 3

I had same issue. ms authenticator is rubbish.

I installed google authenticator, Logged into my MS Office account, went to security info, Added a new sign-in method for Authenticator, followed "use different app" link, used google authenticator to add account. I can now use 2FA with google authenticator.