My identity needs to be confirmed by sms, but I never get the sms, so can't log in to my business account

Question

My identity needs to be confirmed by sms, but I never get the sms, so can't log in to my business account

Leon van Os 5

Hi,

I'm asking help for my business account. I've lost my authenticator account so now I can only confirm my identity via sms, but the code never arrives via sms. Please help out urgently as it's my business account and I'm now missing out on my business emails.

BR,

[Moderator note: personal info removed]

Moved from: Windows for business | Windows 365 Business

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Henry-N 10,155 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Leon van Os,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum!

Regarding that you can't access your Microsoft account due to Microsoft authenticator. I’d like to ask a few quick questions to better understand the situation and assist you more effectively:

Can you clarify whether you are an end user or an admin in your organization ?

If you are an end user, I would recommend you to contact with your account's Admin to reset your MFA settings through the Microsoft Entra Admin Center. Ask your administrator to follow these steps:

Revoke MFA sessions and require re-register in the Microsoft Entra admin center

User's image You could show your admin this article for a better view:Manage authentication methods for Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication - Microsoft Entra ID |…

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

Please note that forum moderators have no control over user accounts, especially when it comes to logging in to your account, resetting your password, changing your access, etc.

Thank you again for your time and understanding. While my initial response may not resolve the issue immediately, I’d like to gather more details about your situation so I can assist you more effectively.

I really appreciate your patience, and I’m here to help. Looking forward to your response!

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

Leon van Os 5 Reputation points

2026-02-16T12:30:49.2766667+00:00

Hi,

I’m the admin for the organization.

best regards,

Leon
Henry-N 10,155 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-16T17:03:56.99+00:00
Hi @Leon van Os,

Thank you for the update this helps a lot.

I’m really sorry to hear about your situation. I understand you’re unable to log in to your global admin account. To assist you effectively, I’d like to clarify a few points:

Do you have any other admin account that you can use to log in to Microsoft 365 Admin center?

If you don't have any other admin account in this situation, the Microsoft Data Protection team has tools and processes in place to verify identity and regain access to administrator accounts.

Please note that forum moderators have no control over user accounts, especially when it comes to logging in to your account, resetting your password, changing your access, etc.

Therefore, If you are the only administrator in your organization, then you need to involve Microsoft data protection team. Please try to find the related hotline number to call the frontline let them raise a ticket for you: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support

In some countries, this is an automated conversation: First, when you call the hotline, they will ask you what kind of problem you are struggling with.

Answer: Authenticator.

A: What products do you use?

B: Office 365 for business.

Verification: Education or company account?

B: For companies

A: Are you an administrator?

B: Yes.

A: Are there any other administrators in your organization?

B: No.

A: I need one.... Service request?

B: Yes

If your organization's Office 365 Business/Education subscription is from a partner or reseller, and the global administrator is unable to open a service request on your end, contact the reseller's support provider to help open a service request on behalf of you instead.



Alternatively, you can try set up a new trial tenant and submit your support request:

Visit the Microsoft 365 Enterprise Plans page: Go to Compare Office 365 Enterprise Pricing and Plans | Microsoft 365.

Choose a plan and start a free trial: Select any of the available plans and click "Try for free" to begin the trial setup process.

Follow the guided setup: Complete the steps to create a new Microsoft account and a new tenant. This will be a separate and independent Microsoft 365 environment.

Access the Microsoft 365 Admin Center: Once the new tenant is created, navigate to https://admin.microsoft.com/.

Go to Support: In the left-hand navigation menu, click on "Support" and then "Help & support."

Raise a support ticket: Describe your issue in detail. Crucially, you must clearly state that you are locked out of a different, pre-existing Microsoft 365 tenant where you are the administrator. Provide the following information about your locked account:

Your administrator account email address for the locked tenant.

The domain name of your locked tenant

Any error messages you are receiving.

Details about the authentication issues you are experiencing.

Confirmation that you are the administrator of the locked tenant.

Submit your ticket: Follow the prompts to submit your support request. You will likely receive a ticket number for tracking.     When you open a support ticket, please make sure to turn off the Support Assistant (AI) in the help panel. Several customers have reported issues when the Support Assistant is turned on the system sometimes fails to display the “Contact Support” option. As shown in the screenshot, simply switch Support Assistant → Off, then type your issue description. Once the AI is off, the “Contact Support” button will appear normally, allowing you to submit a ticket directly.

Important notes:

This new trial tenant will not give you access to any of the data or settings in your original locked tenant. It is solely a temporary means to contact Microsoft support.

Be prepared for Microsoft support to ask for verification of your identity and administrative rights for the locked tenant.

The resolution time might be longer as you are contacting support from a different tenant.

Remember to cancel the trial subscription for the new tenant once your issue with the original account is resolved to avoid any unintended charges. You can typically do this within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under "Billing" -> "Your products."

Thank you again for your time and understanding. I really appreciate your patience, and I’m here to help. Looking forward to your response.

Answer 2

kagiyama yutaka 1,165

really feel for you… when sms just never shows, the MFA slot on the backend is basically jammed solid and it won’t unstick on its own. I think that the only thing that’s ever saved folks for me is having the tenant admin wipe the MFA methods in Entra → Users — next sign‑in rebuilds everything clean.

Leon van Os 5 Reputation points

2026-02-15T20:38:43.66+00:00

Unfortunately I am myself the tenant admin, so I can't login to my tenant admin page either...
kagiyama yutaka 1,165 Reputation points

2026-02-19T03:05:58.0933333+00:00

ahh… sry, but if ur the only admin and locked out by MFA, there’s no fix inside the tenant. when sms never lands the slot’s just stuck and I think only MS support can clear the MFA on the backend. really wish I had a better answer for u.

Share via

My identity needs to be confirmed by sms, but I never get the sms, so can't log in to my business account

2 answers

Your answer