Lost admin account with MFA

Question

Dear,

My client has lost access to his MS Authenticator app (broken phone) and so he can't add his outlook to his new phone or he can't access his admin panel.

His account is the only account registered in the admin panel.

He still has access to his e-mails on his laptop and has access to his phone number.

Could someone please help recovering the account?

Kind regards,

Maarten De Bal

Answer 1

Dear @maarten de bal,

Thank you so much for contacting Microsoft Q&A Support. 

I truly apologize that your client is facing with the inconvenience for the Authenticator access when changing to a new phone. In order to help you in this situation, may I know that if he/she uses an alternative verification method: select “I can’t use my Microsoft Authenticator app right now.”? This may allow you to verify your identity via SMS or email, assuming those backup methods were previously set up.  

If the above method doesn’t work, since your client's email is a business account (work or school account), and you mentioned that your client is the only Global Administrator and he/she is completely locked out from the tenant. He/she might need to contact us via phone service number: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support. The agent will be able to create a ticket for them under the affected tenant and then transfer this ticket to Data Protection team who could help them to regain access. 

Please note that this team is always overwhelmed, so they might need to wait for them to call them, this should take 3-10 working days. I know that this is not a convenient solution to hear but it seems to be the only way, and it's recommended that your client should have a secondary/backup Global Administrator to fix this issue on their own. 

Additionally, if your client knows other Global Administrator in their organization, please ask them to follow this article to proceed to reset your client 2FA so that they could re-register again: Manage authentication methods for Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn 

I hope this information can help your client in this situation. 

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Answer 2

Dear @maarten de bal , 

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Q&A Support.  If you cannot access to Admin Center, you can create a new Microsoft account by registering a free trial.  You can initiate a support request by starting a free trial here:  Microsoft 365 Business Plans and Pricing | Microsoft 365 

Assuming that you have already created an account after registering a free trial and you can go to Microsoft 365 admin center and click "Help & support" icon to raise your ticket.  You can follow this link for more instructions: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn. I know that sometimes the phone support could not bring you the emergency you need - but this is the only way as we are only forum moderators, and we could not help you to recover the access as the Microsoft support team is the only team who could do that.

I hope this information can help you and your client soon and I appreciate your understanding in this matter.

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