Lost access Authenticator -also no recovery code - locked out of account now

Question

Dear all,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help. I have the following issue.

Unfotunately I cannot login to my Microsoft account. I have set up MFA with:

1. Microsoft Authenticator app
2. Secondary e-mail

I have forgotten the password to my Microsoft account, so I tried to reset the password, which logicallty asks for MFA. To my shock, when I tried to log in via Authenticator, I saw that this app wasn't on my phone anymore. The app and the accounts were deleted, without a backup.

Recovering my account requires both the Authenticator verification, and secondary e-mail verification. I only have access to the secondary e-mail, not Authenticator. When trying to recover my account via the recovery Form and proceeding the steps, one of the steps says (translated from Dutch): "The form cannot help if you have two-step verification, as no one, including our support staff, can access your account without the secondary security information."

So here I am: I lost access to Authenticator app and cannot log in now. I also don't have the 25-digit recovery code. Please, can someone help me. I'm deeply saddend as this account contains very important information. I am painfully aware of my stupidity for losing access to this information in this way.

Please help me, please.

Sincerely

Answer 1

Dear Walid,

It seems your IT Administrator has SSPR (Self-Service Password Reset) enabled and requires 2 authentication methods. Seeing as you have no access to your MS authenticator app, you must acquire a new authentication method before being able to reset your password (and re-register MS authenticator app).

Ask your IT administrator to assign you a TAP (Temporary Access Pass). After getting one, make sure you go to account.microsoft.com and register the MS authenticator app to your account again in the Security Info section. After you have done that, you should be able to reset your password as well.

TAP might be disabled (as it is by default), it is up to your IT admin to enable this in the Authentication Methods section in your Entra ID tenant.

Let me know if it helped you out!