Unable to login to portal.azure.com with authenticator app

Question

When I log in to my Azure subscription via the Azure portal, I receive a notification on my Microsoft Authenticator app as expected. However, when I open the app after the notification arrives, I see the following error message:

“Error finding an account to complete multi-factor authentication. You may need to add the account again.”

I’m unsure how to properly re-add the account in the Microsoft Authenticator app. I have already gone to myapps.microsoft.com and attempted to set up the Authenticator app again, but I continue to encounter the same error.

Could you please advise on how to resolve this issue or correctly re-add the account?

Answer 1

The error indicates that the Authenticator app cannot find a valid account entry to complete MFA, so the sign-in flow is not completing.

Use the following steps to resolve it:

1. Make sure the Authenticator app can complete sign-in
   • Open Microsoft Authenticator directly and ensure the app is unlocked (no app lock/passcode screen blocking it). A locked app can prevent the entry box from appearing and cause an "Authentication did not complete"–type failure.
   • Confirm that notifications for Microsoft Authenticator are enabled on the device and not set to silent/blocked. If notifications are silent or disabled, the prompt needed to complete MFA may not appear.
2. Check device and app health
   • Ensure the device has a working internet connection (try switching between Wi‑Fi and mobile data).
   • Verify the device date and time are set correctly, preferably to automatic.
   • Confirm that the latest version of Microsoft Authenticator is installed from the app store.
3. Re-add the account cleanly Because the app reports it cannot find an account to complete MFA, the existing entry is likely invalid or incomplete.
   • In Microsoft Authenticator, remove the problematic work/school account entry (if one is present for this Azure login).
   • Then, from a browser where the Azure account can at least start sign-in, follow the normal MFA registration flow again so that a new entry is created in Authenticator. If the browser sign-in is stuck because of the broken app registration, an administrator may need to reset MFA as described below.
4. If sign-in still cannot complete
   • If the sign-in keeps failing with messages like "Authentication did not complete" or similar, and re-adding the account in the app does not help, an administrator in the tenant should require re-register MFA for the user so that all MFA methods can be configured again from scratch.
   • An admin can do this in the Microsoft Entra admin center by going to Identity → Users → [select user] → Authentication methods → Require re-register MFA, as described in the referenced guidance.

If there is no other global administrator in the tenant and this is a tenant lockout scenario, the issue must be escalated to Microsoft Support (Data Protection / Tenant Recovery) so they can help restore access and reset MFA registration.

---

References:

• Troubleshoot problems with Microsoft Authenticator
• Reset Personal Azure MFA - Microsoft Q&A
• Global Admin Locked out - Microsoft Q&A
• Severity A Situation - Locked out of global admin account (MFA) - business down - Microsoft Q&A