Authenticator app problem

Question

Authenticator Stuck in Loop

My Authenticator recently stopped working properly. This happened after I switched to a new phone. iPhone 13 to a new 13 When I try to log into my school email, it says I need to use Authenticator to authenticate. When Authenticator pops up it wont show the number to approve it

Answer 1

Hello Tuggle, Deshawn.,

Thanks for your question.

Most likely it is still sending to the former device. To transfer your data from one phone to another you need to backup the existing phone's MFA data. The steps to do this are below.

(Please note that if these steps were not done you will have to reach out to your school IT admin)

To move your authenticator app and configure accounts without losing data, you need to:

• Go to your authenticator app
• Open Microsoft Authenticator. Tap the three vertical dots at the top right, and then tap "Settings."
• In the "Backup" section, toggle-On "Cloud Backup" on an Android phone, or "iCloud Backup" on an iPhone.
• This will proceed to back up your data. (Note, this will back this up to the account you used to set authenticator up)

You can then proceed to navigate to your new phone

• Open your fresh Authenticator and navigate to recovery tool. In recovery you should see >> "Already have a back up? sign in to your recovery account"
• Once you do this, You'll be asked to sign in to the Microsoft account you used for the backup on your old phone. Your accounts will then automatically be added to Microsoft Authenticator on your new one.

Pls note that some accounts will ask you to revalidate, to confirm it is you. by signing in to those accounts or scanning a QR code. Microsoft Authenticator will display a message if you need to do this.

Once done test, all your accounts are present then go ahead and remove from your old phone

You can mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you

Regards,

Abiola