Microsoft authenticator loop

Question

I am unable to sign into the microsoft authenticator app because whenever I try to it asks me to use the app (which is impossible as thats what I'm signing into), when I try clicking on other ways to sign in both methods just use the authenticator app, and I can't add my phone number of personal email to use 2 factor authentication as I need to first use the authenticator to access the ability to add this. I have tried closing the app and reopening it, uninstalling and reinstalling the app, and I have tried clearing the app data but nothing works. This is very important as its my uni email account so now I cant access my emails on my phone and I am unable to access some software that is required for my course on my laptop. Any information that may help is greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Since this is a university account, you have to contact the IT support at your university for assistance.

Answer 2

Hello @Searle, Jae (Student)

Welcome to Q&A forum!

Based on your message, I need to reconfirm your account type that you are using to access authenticator app to ensure we can provide the most appropriate troubleshooting steps:

• Personal account (e.g., hotmail.com, outlook.com)
• Educational account (e.g., @edu_)
• Business account (e.g., @yourcompany.com)

Since this is a sensitive and complex issue related to account security, I kindly ask for your patience and recommend following the steps to regain your access.

If your account is an educational account, in this case, the only way to regain access is to contact your IT administrator or Global admin and request a phone number update in the Microsoft Entra admin center.

In the Entra admin center, an administrator can set user accounts to require a re-enrollment of multi-factor authentication (MFA). Ask your administrator to follow the steps shown in the following article: 

Manage user authentication methods for Microsoft Entra multi-factor authentication 

• Sign in to Microsoft Entra - Microsoft Entra admin center 
• User -> all users. Select the user you want to act on, and then select "Authentication methods". then select "Require multi-factor authentication re-registration". 

Require re-enrollment MFA: This disables all previous authentication methods. You'll then be prompted to set up a new MFA authentication method the next time you try to sign in, so you can add a new authenticator app.  

If you’re unsure who the Global Admin is within your school account's organization, you can find guidance on locating them here:  How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support.  

 

I highly appreciate your valuable time and your cooperation during this process

Please feel free to reach out to me again if you still have any concerns or questions.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in "our documentation" to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.