Login to Outlook and authenticator

Question

Hello. Writing this to help my mother in law.

As before, she was going to access her mail (app) but was logged out. When she tried to log in to her email (outlook, hotmail), she received a message that the number of attempts had been reached.  
She also needed to confirm via authenticator, but she can't access it since she changed her phone. When trying to change the password, an authenticator is required.

So now it's a bit of a catch 22. Can't access authenticator and can't log in to his email.

We have contacted microsoft and answered x number of questions, but no feedback at all. 

The last option we have is to restore, but then it may take 30 days due to some type of security.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

Answer 1

Hi @StefanS

Welcome to our forum!

There are a few steps you can take to try to resolve it.

• Restore from Authenticator Cloud Backup: If there was a cloud backup set up for the Microsoft Authenticator app, you can restore it. Make sure no accounts have been added to the newly installed app. Then sign in with the recovery account to do the restore. This can help recover account credentials from the cloud account.
• Temporary Access Pass (TAP): If the device is blocked without access to a PR-MFA method, you can get a Temporary Access Pass (TAP) from the Identity Pass app on your mobile device to get back into your devices and set up a passkey. This TAP will only provide authorization for 30 minutes, so plan accordingly.
• Contact Microsoft Support: Since you've already contacted Microsoft and answered several questions, it might be helpful to follow up with them. Sometimes, persistence can help expedite the process.
• Microsoft Q&A Community: There are several threads on the Microsoft Q&A Community where users have faced similar issues. You might find additional tips or solutions by browsing through these discussions.
  • How to log into Authenticator when it asks for an Authenticator code or account code to log in? - Microsoft Q&A 
  • Can’t login to Teams or Outlook with Authenticator-app - Microsoft Q&A 
  • Unable to login to Microsoft work account due to MFA and authenticator app not working - Microsoft Q&A 

If none of these steps work, unfortunately, the last resort might be to wait for the 30-day security period to pass.

Hope it helps! 

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