Microsoft Authenticator Issue/Improvement

Question

I have suggestion for the way Microsoft Authenticator works. There lot of users facing issues especially with work accounts; I being one of them. After sign out from previous phone authenticator app I am not able to login in new phone or old phone. Now I have to wait for our IT ADMIN to pitch in. Normally we will be using Web based work account when we are away from office and will not be able to get in contact with our IT ADMIN right away. This is really hampering the effective use of emails. Consider the new phone atleast if prev device is signed out.

Answer 1

Anupriya A R,

Did you properly backup your old authenticator to from the old phone to the Google (Android) or Apple (iOS) cloud account and then recover that backup to your new phone device as detailed in the following Microsoft documents?

Back up account credentials in Microsoft Authenticator - Microsoft Support

Restore account credentials from Microsoft Authenticator - Microsoft Support

Most consumer users of the Microsoft Authenticator aren't aware of these requirements and so instead they simply install a new copy of the authenticator app on the new phone and set it up from scratch, which obliterates the existing accounts on the old phone and can't work with the new one either, since the credentials in the account itself no longer match.

You're correct that this is a common problem, but it's truly a user education issue and not a technical one, since I've done this process myself the correct way with my personal account and everything from the old authenticator worked immediately on the new phone once it was properly restored.

However, I don't also have a Work or school account, so I don't know how well that portion works with restore, though according to these documents it's supposed to for at least one such account.

Rob

Answer 2

Hi Anupriya,

I am Tanvi, and I would be happy to assist you today!

I can understand your issues, and you can provide your valuable suggestions on the link given below:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sen...

Additionally, you can also refer to the link mentioned below:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365...

Please note: This is a user-to-user community forum. We are users just like you who help others. We are not employees of Microsoft.

I hope this information helps. Please let me know if you have any other queries.

Good Day