New phone not recognized

Question

I cannot delete my old phone and my new phone isn't being recognized to sign into my work account.

Answer 1

Dear @Lea Bayley, 

I hope you’re having a great day and I’m sorry to hear you're having trouble accessing your work account due to your new phone don't recognize.    

Since you haven’t mentioned whether you’re the sole IT admin or an end-user in your organization, here are a few workarounds you can try:   

Option 1: Contact your IT admin  

If you are an end user or if your organization has other administrators, please contact your organization's IT Help Desk or support team and explain the situation. You can say: "I’m stuck in a login loop and can’t receive the sign-in code because my new phone isn’t recognized."    

Specifically ask them to “Reset my MFA settings or allow me to re-register for MFA". This is a standard request, and your organization's IT team should be able to assist you with it.    

You can also share the steps in this Microsoft article for them so they can help reset your MFA settings for you: Manage user authentication methods for Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication.  

Once your organization resets your MFA, the next time you log in to your account, you will be guided through the process of setting up the Microsoft Authenticator app again from the beginning by scanning a QR code. This will break the loop and allow you to access your account normally.   

Option 2: If you are the only admin and can’t get into your account 

To regain access to your admin account as you can't access the Admin Portal, you can try reaching out to our Global Customer Service phone to raise a request for resetting your authentication method here: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support. During the call, request to speak to an agent, and share with them every detail related to your query and also mention that you are the only admin who lost access to your account. This should allow you to contact the appropriate team so you can solve this incident as soon as possible.   

Here are some tips and an example of a prompt to help you navigate the IVR more effectively:         

In some countries, it is an automated conversation like:   

IVR: What kind of problem are you concerned about?         

You: Authenticator.         

IVR: What kind of product do you use?         

You: Office 365 for business.         

IVR confirmation: education or company account?         

You: For companies         

IVR: Are you an administrator?         

You: Yes.         

IVR: Do you have another administrator in your organization?         

You: No.         

IVR: Do you need a... Service request?      

You: Yes. I need to create a ticket. Please send me direct to the Data Protection Team. 

Once the support ticket is created, the system will assign a support agent to your case. They will contact you by phone or email as requested and verify ownership of the domain by requesting certain information. Once verification is complete, they'll reset your MFA and help you regain access to your manager account. Please keep your attention on your phone and email so you don't miss any communication. 

Please note that forum moderators do not have access to user account settings and cannot assist with login, password resets, or changes to access rights. While I don't have access to the internal systems or administrative tools needed to resolve specific account issues or backend issues, I will continue to do my best to assist you within the scope of my responsibilities. 

I hope this helps you regain access to your account quickly. I gladly help you and sincerely hope that the information provided has been helpful. Feel free to get in touch at any time if you need further assistance. 

Thank you for your kindness and your contributions to the forum. 

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