2FA stuck in a loop for admin user

Question

Hi,

I am having problems with the user admin account for our Office 365 business account.

We made a DNS change to add our domain to 365, which worked fine, for all users other than the administrator, typical!

After we changed the account name details for the admin, it automatically logged us out. We then tried to log back in, it launched 2FA and provided a code to be used on the authenticator app, only problem is that account is not added to the admin's authenticator app as it didn't exist, and is newly created as part of this change!! To try and resolve this, we then tried adding the account to the admins authenticator app, however we got the same thing , a number on screen to enter into the authenticator app, when we are already in that app!!!

It appears that the 2FA is stuck in a loop where it wants us to enter a code into the app, but the account doesnt exist, and asking the same in the actual app itself. and we have no way to get round this that we can see??!?!?!

Any thoughts or ideas on how we can get this sorted please, as currently our admin cannot access anything!

David Owen

Answer 1

Dear David Owen,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community.

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with 2FA for your admin account.

May I please double confirm if the account in question is the only admin account or you have alternative email account?

If you have alternative admin account and you can still access admin page, you can sign in to Microsoft Entra ID ( https://entra.microsoft.com/) -->Users -->All users -->Select your account in question -->Authentication method -->select Re-register multifactor authentication -->confirm the dialog box -->Save. Once your Multifactor authentication session re-registered in Microsoft admin center, it will generate a new QR code for authentication, then you can scan and add the account again to your authenticator app or update the session. You can refer to Manage authentication methods for Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn

However, if the account in question is the only admin account in your organization, I do understand your query here but, as your query related to admin account, and since we are belong to Microsoft Community site, our forum is available for public. Also, we have limited resource and privilege to examine account related scenarios. Moreover, if you are the only admin in your organization, admin account is relevant to the security of your organization, we value the security and privacy of your organization, so for your concerns, we sincerely recommend that you contact our dedicated data protection support team directly via phone support Find Microsoft 365 for business support phone numbers by country or region - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn. They are the only responsible and privileged support team for account related queries. While phone call, press "1" as business email user and press "1" again as technical support. You also need to provide your subscription purchased information such as company name, billing information, phone number, alternative email address etc. So, our data protection team can assist you in resetting your multifactor authentication and once reset, you can add the account to your authenticator app again or choose other authentication methods to sign in.

Thank you for your precious time and understanding.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Libeamlak | Microsoft Community Moderator