How do you reset MFA for a user if they no long have their phone?

Question

Have tried a few different things and have had no luck resetting the MFA on a user. The user is still being prompted to use the Authenticator app but they no long have the phone to access the request. They did not have text setup. How can I get the user access to there account?

Answer 1

As an admin, follow the steps here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-userdevicesettings#manage-user-authentication-options
In a nutshell, hit the "..." button > Delete next to each method you want to remove, and hit the Require Re-register MFA button.

Answer 2

The mistake many people are making right now is that they are not testing that Microsoft Authenticator is working on their new phone BEFORE their phone carrier resets their old trade-in phone. People are assuming everything gets transfered over to the new phone which isn't always the case. So, test your MFA logins before erasing old phones, people!

Some people have even reached out to Dell for help resetting MFA. Dell must have some back door help with Microsoft which is sorta hush hush apparently.

Answer 3

I ran into this issue a week ago. Reset my phone and had to reinstall MS Authenticator App. After reinstall, trying to sign in was useless, because i kept getting prompted to use the app.

This cyclic issue was resolved, only after i called the MS support number mentioned here - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/get-help-support?view=o365-worldwide

Raised a case and got in touch with an engineer after a couple of follow-ups.

They had to reset my MFA setup. I was able to log back and setup the MFA again.

Whole cycle took about 3 days to complete.