(Solved) Microsoft Authenticator with wrong Microsoft Account

Question

Hi,
I tried to contact Microsoft Support via chat, but they were unable to help. They asked me to contact Azure support.

I have a terrible problem with Microsoft Authenticator and do not know how to solve it.

On my smartphone (Android OS) last year I installed Microsoft Authenticator. It has been almost one year that I use it and wanted to start backing up its content. I went into Settings and under Backup section I was shocked when I found out that there is another Microsoft personal account that is not mine. I was expecting to see my Microsoft personal account listed.

On one hand I am very lucky because I have access to this account and can manage it (even if it is not mine - it was an old friend of mine that does not use it anymore).

As I have about 30 authenticator entries, I must make so that the App becomes connected to my account.

Q1. How do I migrate existing authenticator entries from existing account to my own Microsoft account?

Q2. How to I change account in Microsoft Authenticator App so that I can see under settings Account: my_personal_microsoft_account@hotmail.com ?

Q3. Any idea of how this could have happened? I ask so because I wish to avoid making this mistake in the future (for myself or other users)

Q4. Does Microsoft offer support for this App or we are all on our own?

Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Hi,
I just wanted to let know I was painfully able to solve the problem. :-)

I wish to share what I did and how I was able to solve this problem, without documenting myself any further.

Please make sure, when you first install Microsoft Authenticator App on a smartphone, to login with the desired/correct Microsoft personal account so you won't find in trouble like I did.

FYI: I just wasted about three hours to fix everything.

Let's begin... 

1. I took a second smartphone, installed Microsoft Authenticator, configured it with my correct Microsoft personal account. I verified the account I used was listed under backup settings, just to be safe.
2. With two smartphones handy, I started accessing with the original (first) smartphone, site by site, adding the second smartphone to the Authenticator list.
   This is really time consuming depending on how many accounts you have. I had about 30 accounts.
   To do so, I used Microsoft Edge and every time I opened an InPrivate session so I knew it was an isolated session that would not pickup existing sessions/settings or whatever. For each account I started Microsoft Edge InPrivate browser every time.
3. Once I completed this work, on the second smartphone I made a backup of the work being done.
   Not having found any "backup now" I disabled Backup and enabled it again. This action made so that existing backup was deleted and recreated.
4. Once I was sure that all was done properly, I took back my first smartphone. I cleared cache and memory from App settings and run the application again as the App was just uninstalled and reinstalled.
5. This time I did not configured my account but selected to restore from backup clicking on "Begin Recovery" button. This made the magic trick. All entries magically appeared on the App even if a lot were not usable at first.
6. As I just said, most of account being recreated on first smartphone needed to be either verified again or added again to the Authenticator of each site. This gave me the opportunity to access each account, add the first smartphone and then remove at second smartphone all at the same time.
7. Once all was done and verified, from second smartphone I uninstalled Microsoft Authenticator App and completed the job. Then I did few random tests using the only smartphone left with a working Microsoft Authenticator App.

I hope this will help anyone who might encounter the same issue I had. I still did not understand how a wrong Microsoft Personal account got add to the App. All tha now matters is that, after three hours of work all is not working as it should considering how important Microsoft Authenticator is for my daily safe work/activities.

Take care...

Answer 2

Thanks for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I hope this video can help you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHoId0-8qA

or this article

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/back-up-and-recover-account-credentials-in-the-authenticator-app-bb939936-7a8d-4e88-bc43-49bc1a700a40

In the absence of a backup for restoration, the sole recourse is to utilize the account recovery methods provided by each service provider. The Microsoft Authenticator functions solely as a code generator.

** Please don't forget to close up the thread here by upvoting and accept it as an answer if it is helpful **

Answer 3

Hello SAngeli,

Thanks for providing this answer to the community.

Since the Microsoft Q&A community has a policy that The question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others, I'll repost your solution in case you'd like to Accept the answer to help others.

As a solution you documented this:

Let's begin... 

1. I took a second smartphone, installed Microsoft Authenticator, configured it with my correct Microsoft personal account. I verified the account I used was listed under backup settings, just to be safe.
2. With two smartphones handy, I started accessing with the original (first) smartphone, site by site, adding the second smartphone to the Authenticator list. This is really time consuming depending on how many accounts you have. I had about 30 accounts. To do so, I used Microsoft Edge and every time I opened an InPrivate session so I knew it was an isolated session that would not pickup existing sessions/settings or whatever. For each account I started Microsoft Edge InPrivate browser every time.
3. Once I completed this work, on the second smartphone I made a backup of the work being done. Not having found any "backup now" I disabled Backup and enabled it again. This action made so that existing backup was deleted and recreated.
4. Once I was sure that all was done properly, I took back my first smartphone. I cleared cache and memory from App settings and run the application again as the App was just uninstalled and reinstalled.
5. This time I did not configured my account but selected to restore from backup clicking on "Begin Recovery" button. This made the magic trick. All entries magically appeared on the App even if a lot were not usable at first.
6. As I just said, most of account being recreated on first smartphone needed to be either verified again or added again to the Authenticator of each site. This gave me the opportunity to access each account, add the first smartphone and then remove at second smartphone all at the same time.
7. Once all was done and verified, from second smartphone I uninstalled Microsoft Authenticator App and completed the job. Then I did few random tests using the only smartphone left with a working Microsoft Authenticator App.