Removing authenticator app requirement from our organization

Question

I need to remove the authenticator app requirement from our organization. Our students do not all have access to mobile phones at school to install and use an authenticator app. I am the administrator for the accounts at a k-12 public school. We have an unlimited amount of user I can add and delete. However, when a student tries to log into the app, the setting say more information is required by your organization. Then it requires to download an authenticator app and scan a QR code, etc. Student are trying to log into their accounts in a computer lab and they do not even own cell phones to download an app.

Answer 1

Thanks for the detailed steps. However, neither of those options work for me, both steps were already disabled (awesome to know that you, MS, have disabled security by default on our organizations account).

We really need to NOT EVER use the authenticator app; I've used it in the past and what a HOT MESS it is! It is unacceptable for organizational use, and we need to use traditional MFA. Please address how this can be fixed.

Answer 2

Good afternoon William,

I hope your week is going well,

Unfortunately, I hit the (MFA) app by mistake when pre-registering within 360 Quote & Tender Evaluation process for the Local Buy portal.

I have issues in the past with Okta Verify and would like to have the ease of sign in without this step please.

Estimating, Contracts & Projects Coordinator.

Answer 3

Greetings William Shelburne,

Hope you are doing well!

Many thanks for the kind response. May I please confirm Security default is turned off in your organization? To check this kindly Sign into the Microsoft 365 admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com/) with your admin credentials-->Show All-->choose Identity under Admin centers

Kindly click on Overview-->Properties-->click on Manage security defaults-->Make sure that Disable is selected then check if it will make any difference

Kindly note that with security defaults disabled, your organization is vulnerable to common identity-related attacks.

We are looking forward to your response! Please feel free to let me know if there are any questions. I will keep assisting you based on the information you provide. We sincerely appreciate your patience and cooperation. Thanks for your precious time. Have a nice day!

Best regards,

Inema | Microsoft Community Moderator

THIS WORKED! Thank you.

This is clearly a bug on Microsoft's end. In the first set of instructions Inema provided above, all my settings showed that Multi-factor authentication was disabled. However, this setting buried in a completely different place, was Enabled. Changing it to Disabled as instructed fixed the issue.

Microsoft needs to change this where all these settings are in ONE place, and that the state of one setting is accurately reflected in BOTH places. If one shows as enabled, they both need to show as enabled because that's the behavior we are experiencing.