Authenticator app does not work

Question

Hi, I have a new phone and now my Authenticator app does not work and I can not get in my email. I don’t get a code or something.

Answer 1

Hey there, Tess Lijbers

Please can you open the Microsoft Authenticator app on your new phone and check if your account is listed within the app. Most people, when buying a new phone, will sign into the Microsoft Authenticator app and not check if all of the accounts are listed and that they work. Thus, end up clearing their old phone. Then when they come to sign into their Microsoft account, the code doesn't arrive as it is sending the request to the old phone, not the new one.

If you don't see your account listed, then we can look at ways at trying to get your account back, but this does depend on what type of account this is and if you still have everything set up on your old phone.

If you see your account listed and you can click onto it to open the account information and security code, please go back to the main page where you can see all of your accounts, then swipe down. This will force the app to refresh and look for any requests being sent to the phone. Please make sure you have a good stable internet connection. If you are able to, please use WIFI rather then mobile internet. If you don't have a good stable internet connection, this can delay or prevent the push notification from arriving. This is due to the server having to communicate to the Authenticator app and the app not receiving the notification.

If this works, and provides a dialog box to verify your sign-in request, please can you go to your phones notification settings and check that the Microsoft Authenticator app has permission to display notifications on your phone. By default, this is disabled. Enabling this will allow future notifications to show on your phone.

If this still doesn't work, please click onto your account you are wanting to sign into, then use the 6 or 8 digit code (depending on the type of account you are signing into) to verify your sign in request. You will need to click onto the option to use verification code instead on your sign-in screen.

Hope this helps,
Nathan