Accidental Uninstallation Microsoft authenticator and cannot login anymore

Question

Dear team,

I accidentally uninstalled Microsoft authenticator and cannot no longer log into the account. Please see the screenshot attached. Every time I tried to login, it asked the authenticator approval or the code, which is also only available in the authenticator. It is like a loop. If I cannot login, then I will not have the authenticator approve or code. But if I do not have the authenticator approve, then I cannot login...

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Yanfeng

Answer 1

Hi Sherry Chen,

Thanks for your reply to Yanfeng.

I encountered a more or less similar problem while login microsoft account.

I uninstalled and re-installed MS Authenticator app. App recovery process was failed due to an error (as shown on the screen). I could add a personal Hotmail account to the newly installed app. BUT not onmicrosoft account. That account is adminstrator account of Office 365 under developer program.

I was asked for code verification that I could not do.

The app is running in the latest version.

After clicking 'I can not use .... right now', again I get this.

Thanks and best I remain,

Damodar

Answer 2

Dear Yanfeng XU,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

Based on your description, we understand that you accidently uninstalled Microsoft authenticator, so that will have some problem receiving the verification code to access your M365 edu account. (For your information security reason, I masked the private information in your thread to prevent phishing/spoofing risks, please comprehend.)

For education subscription, Microsoft provide the subscription based on organization. In each organization, there are admins to manage the students' and teachers' accounts. In this situation, since your authenticator app may need to be re-configured, the best way for you is to contact the admin(might be teachers in IT departments ) in your school to reset the authentication method for you. After that, you will be required to set the authentication app again when you login the Microsoft365 portal the next time.

Following article is for your admin redference: Manage authentication methods for Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication - Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn.

I hope the information above can be useful. If there is any update or I misunderstand you, please feel free to let me know. I will continue to assist you. Your understanding and co-operation are highly appreciated.

Thanks for your precious time. Have a nice day！

Sincerely,

Sherry | Microsoft Community Moderator