We need to recover Global Admin access to a Microsoft 365 tenant.

Question

We need to recover Global Admin access to a Microsoft 365 tenant.

Derick Deyzel 0

We moved from being managed by a Microsoft partner to wanting to be under our own portfolio. During the hand off process neither of our users we given admin access although we own the domain and pay for the licenses monthly. We have been looking for a way to do a takeover or submit a support ticket but we are unable to due to no admin permissions. How would we go about getting admin access for my own Microsoft 365 tenant?

Moved from: Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For business | Windows

1 answer

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Answer 1

Hi @Derick Deyzel

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

Since your tenant was previously managed by a Microsoft partner, only that partner currently holds the admin permissions for your Microsoft 365 environment. Because of this, you will need to contact your partner directly and request that they restore or assign Global Administrator access to your accounts.

In case you are unable to request your partner to regain the Global Admin account, you will need to contact the Microsoft Data Protection team for further assistance. Please locate the appropriate support phone number for your country or region and contact Microsoft Support so the frontline team can raise a service request on your behalf: Customer service phone numbers

When calling the support number, the experience may vary depending on your country or region:

In some regions, you may hear an automated message for approximately 30 seconds. You can ignore this message and wait for the prompt, then select “1” for Business email user and “1” again for Technical support.
In other regions, you may be guided through an automated conversation similar to the following:
- The system asks what issue you are experiencing > Authenticator
- Product in use > Office 365 for Business
- Account type > Company account
- Administrator status > Yes
- Are there other administrators in the organization? > No
- Proceed to create a service request > Yes

Alternatively, if you are unable to reach support by phone, you may create a temporary trial tenant to submit a support request for the block access tenant through the Microsoft 365 admin center. You can start with a trial license here: Microsoft 365 Business Plans and Pricing | Microsoft 365

Important: Please remember to cancel the trial subscription after your original account issue is resolved to avoid any future charges.

Note: Please understand that as forum moderator, our primary goal is to provide helpful guidance and support through general troubleshooting steps. While we don’t have access to internal systems or test devices required to resolve backend/account issues, we truly appreciate your understanding of these limitations. we genuinely hope the information helps you in the right direction, and we are always here to assist as much as we can within our scope.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and I hope the information above is helpful. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out.

Derick Deyzel 0 Reputation points

2026-03-05T07:07:14.1733333+00:00

Hi @Nam-D

Thank you for your answer. Is there anyway for us to find out who the admin is of our tenant? that way we know who to communicate with?

We were not involved in the process, this was between 2 service provides and the one that "set the tenant up" after we left our previous partner has closed down, but maybe if there is a way we can confirm the tenant email address then maybe we can still try contact the relevant party.
Nam-D 2,245 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-05T07:45:25.9866667+00:00

Hi @Derick Deyzel ,

Unfortunately as a Microsoft moderator, I don’t have access to the backend of your tenant, so I’m unable to view or restore any admin accounts directly. However, if you still have documents that prove you are the legitimate owner of the tenant (such as domain ownership, billing records, registration information, or payment details), you can contact Microsoft Support and request a tenant ownership verification.

Once Microsoft verifies that you are the rightful owner, they can help you restore or assign a new Global Admin to your tenant.

I hope you find this information helpful. If anything is unclear, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Derick Deyzel 0 Reputation points

2026-03-09T07:45:54.8033333+00:00

I would prefer to go this method as I have all the required documentation etc. The only issue I have is seeing as I am not an admin I am unsure how to submit the support ticket. Do you have an email address I can mail to get InTouch with Microsoft support?
Vincent Choy 10,745 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-09T08:09:00.1333333+00:00

In your specific case, the advice by Nam-D is correct.

Either you call Microsoft Support by phone, and navigate the auto-attendent to speak to someone...
or you setup a trial account, so have access to admin features, and raise a support ticket about your actual real account.

Either way, support will have to refer you to the data protection team.

That team is super busy so you will have to continue to bug support.

Once you establish communication with the team, you will have to work with them to prove your ownership. The verification might be robust, as anyone can claim to be you and ask for a admin reset.

It might take 1-3 weeks for successfully complete this task
Nam-D 2,245 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-09T14:42:50.77+00:00

Hi @Derick Deyzel ,

Currently, the only available method to recover a tenant lockout is to contact Microsoft Support and work directly with the Data Protection Team since Microsoft requires this process to ensure the security and protection of customer data, so no alternative recovery options are provided.

I apologize again for the difficulty this creates, and I appreciate your patience. If you need further support or gathering the required information, I’m here and happy to assist.

Best regards.

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We need to recover Global Admin access to a Microsoft 365 tenant.

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