Using Authenticator on multiple devices, can't get it working

Question

I have the following situation:

• a phone with Microsoft authenticator.
• a tablet with Microsoft authenticator

Both Android devices.

I created a backup in the cloud and can read the backup on the tablet as well and it works as expected.

The problem is that I want to replace my phone with another phone (android as well). I install the Microsoft Authenticator app and restore the backup.  However, the new phone only contains the Microsoft account I use for the backup and nothing else. I tried reinstalling the app, but the result is the same.

I want to be sure that the app works before removing the authenticator from the first phone.

Thanks in advance for any help on it.

Answer 1

Hi Mark Wigmans,

Thank you for reaching out here at the Microsoft Community Forum.

We understand that you have concerns about using the Authenticator app on multiple devices. We hope that you’re doing great despite having issues getting it to work. Let’s work on this together and we’ll assist you in the best way we can.

To clarify if it has something to do with the Authenticator app itself or maybe account related, we’d like to ask the following questions:

1. May we clarify what you mean by the backup you’ve created in the cloud? Are you referring to the backup of your account credentials and related app settings? If not, please elaborate on this.
2. When you mentioned that the new only contains the Microsoft account used for the backup, does that mean the other accounts that supposed to be backed up as well on the old device are not showing from the new phone? Is that what you mean?
3. Are you using a personal Microsoft account?

We’d love to hear from you soon and provide recommendations. We’ll wait for your response.