Gain control of admin account

Question

HI there I need to gain control of my tenant account as my IT provider refuses to give me the admin password, we no longer wish to deal with him and have requested the admin password and he refuses, we do not owe him any money and has said he will provide the password if i pay him $1000

Answer 1

Dear @Brian Burman,

Thank you for reaching out and for explaining the situation. I understand how concerning and frustrating it can be to lose administrative access to your own Microsoft 365 tenant, especially when you are no longer working with your previous IT provider.

In cases like this, Microsoft does not recommend paying third parties to release admin credentials. The Microsoft 365 tenant belongs to your organization, and Microsoft has an official Tenant Access Recovery process to help business owners regain control when an admin account is no longer accessible or an IT provider is uncooperative.

The supported approach is to contact Microsoft directly so they can verify your ownership of the tenant and restore Global Administrator access. If you are unable to sign in to the original tenant to raise a support request, Microsoft recommends creating a temporary Microsoft 365 trial tenant solely for the purpose of contacting support.

From the new trial tenant, you can submit a support request through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and clearly state that:

• You are the business owner of an existing Microsoft 365 tenant
• Your former IT provider is refusing to provide Global Admin access
• You are requesting Tenant Access Recovery/Data Protection Team assistance

Here are the steps I recommend you try to create a Temporary Account (Trial Tenant) to Submit a Support Ticket:

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

2.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. 

3.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. 

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

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

6.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 tenant. 
• The domain name of your tenant  
• Any error messages you are receiving. 
• Details about the issues you are experiencing 
• Confirmation that you are the administrator of the tenant. 

7.Submit your ticket:

Follow the prompts to submit your support request. You will likely receive a ticket number for tracking. 

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." 

Microsoft’s support team will guide you through the identity and ownership verification process and assist you in regaining administrative control of your tenant.

Once access is restored, it is strongly recommended to review admin roles, remove any unauthorized accounts, and set up additional admin and emergency access accounts to prevent similar issues in the future.

I hope these steps will help resolve your issue. If you need further assistance, I am always here to help.   

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I appreciate your continued trust.