MFA Issue cant get into University Email

Question

Hello,

My phone broke about 1 months ago and it held the Microsoft Authenticator app account for my University. Now that it is broken, I can no longer access the phone. I downloaded the Authenticator app on my new phone and it requests access from my broken phone. There are only two options Microsoft allows and they both have to do with the broken phone. I'd like to have access to my account as I cannot reach my University email currently and I am starting in September. I was able to fiddle with it a bit and get my account on my new phone, but I cant access any codes to sign in since they all are on my old phones authenticator app and hence then I don't receive any codes to approve sign-ins, so it's as if I'm not administrator on this phone. (Note that I had a Samsung S8 and switch to the Samsung S10 Pro, if that changes anything).

(I am not quite sure where this fits in in terms of products for the classification)

To anyone that can help me, I really appreciate it and thank you.

Answer 1

It seems that you are unable to access your University email due to a broken phone that had the Microsoft Authenticator app account for your University. Since you have downloaded the Authenticator app on your new phone, but it requests access from your broken phone, you are unable to receive any codes to approve sign-ins. To resolve this issue, you can contact your University's IT department or help desk to reset your MFA for the affected user. They can guide you through the registration process again and help you set up MFA on your new phone.

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References:

• Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication - Manage and support user accounts
• Microsoft Monetize - Troubleshooting MFA - Auth0 Guardian MFA app