New phone authenticator

Question

My work gave me a new phone. My old phone was my main authentication device and it’s still trying to be after moving all info to new phone. How do I move main authentication to new device

Answer 1

Dear @Eric Adam Swinburnson,

Since your account is a business account, your company IT team or Helpdesk may be able to reset your Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) settings. This will allow you to reconfigure MFA from scratch on your new device. As a forum user, I do not have administrative access to change these settings. Only your IT team has the ability to adjust or reset your MFA configuration. You can also refer to this Microsoft support article for more information: Manage authentication methods - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn  

In case you are the only Global Administrator and you are completely locked out from the tenant. You might need to contact Microsoft Support team via phone service number: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support. The agent will be able to create a ticket for you under the affected tenant and then transfer this ticket to Data Protection team who could help you to regain access.   

To help you navigate the automated phone system (IVR), here's an example of what the conversation might look like:

IVR: What kind of problem are you worried about?

You: Admin account locked

IVR: What kind of product do you use?

You: Office 365 for business

IVR: Does it count for education or business?

You: For Business

IVR: Are you an admin?

You: Yes

IVR: Do you have another administrator in your organization?

You: No

IVR: Need a service request?

You: Yes

This should help you connect with a live support agent who can help you directly.

If you can't create a support ticket during the call, I recommend creating a temporary tenant account and submitting the support request from there. To create a new tenant, follow these steps:

1. Visit Office 365 E3 - Enterprise Collaboration and Productivity | Microsoft    
2. Select any plan and click Try for free.    
3. Complete the setup to create a new tenant.    
4. Ticket support: In the Microsoft 365 admin center>support>help & support. You can create a support ticket: https://admin.microsoft.com/#/support/requests     

Important: Please remember to cancel the trial subscription once your issue is resolved to avoid any charges.

I understand that this issue may take some time to resolve and could impact your workflow. However, the following solutions have been effective in resolving Microsoft Authenticator issues.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out.

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Answer 2

Dear @Eric Adam Swinburnson

You'll need to register the new phone as a Microsoft Authenticator authentication method before it can become your primary device. Sign in to https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info, add or verify the new phone, set it as your default sign-in method, and then remove the old phone once you've confirmed everything is working.

Answer 3

For a work or school account, moving Microsoft Authenticator to a new phone does not fully transfer the authentication registration. After restore, only the account name is restored, and the new phone must be signed in again to complete setup.

Use this path:

1. Keep the old phone active until sign-in works on the new phone.
2. On the old phone, make sure Authenticator backup was enabled before the move.
   • iPhone: enable iCloud Drive, iCloud Keychain, iCloud Backup, and turn on Authenticator under Apple Account > iCloud > Saved to iCloud.
   • Android: in Microsoft Authenticator, go to Settings > turn on Cloud Backup and choose the Microsoft personal account used for backup.
3. On the new phone, restore Microsoft Authenticator from backup.
4. Open the restored work or school account entry in Authenticator on the new phone.
5. If it shows “Sign in to add your account.”, that is expected. Sign in again to complete setup.
6. If the account uses passkeys, add a new passkey for the new phone before removing the old device:
   • Go to Security info at https://aka.ms/mysecurityinfo
   • Select Add sign-in method
   • Choose Passkey or Passkey in Microsoft Authenticator
   • Complete setup and test sign-in on the new phone
7. Only after the new phone works, remove old passkeys or old device registrations.

If the old phone is still receiving prompts and the new one is not, that usually means the new phone has not finished registration for the work account yet. Opening the account in Authenticator and signing in again is the required step.

If self-service passkey setup is blocked by organization policy, contact the IT admin or help desk for the approved recovery or registration process.

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• Transfer Microsoft Authenticator account entries to a new phone
• Migrate to a new iPhone for work