Urgent – Microsoft 365 licences expired and admin account inaccessible

Question

Hello,

I am contacting you because I am completely locked out of our Microsoft 365 tenant and I am unable to restore our licences myself.

Our previous IT company managed our Microsoft 365 licenses and email accounts. The licenses have now expired and, since Saturday, we have had no access to any of our Vici email addresses.

My account, [Moderator note: Personally Identifiable Information removed]@thevici.com, is the Global Administrator for the tenant, so this is also the account I need to use to access the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and purchase the licenses directly from Microsoft.

The instructions I was given were to retrieve a temporary password through a secure 1Password link, then use that password to sign into the Microsoft Admin Centre, change the password and purchase:

1 x Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Teams

4 x Exchange Online (Plan 1)

The problem is that I cannot get past the first step.

When I open the 1Password link, I am asked to enter my email address. It then says that a verification code has been sent to [Moderator note: Personally Identifiable Information removed]@thevici.com. However, that is the exact email address I cannot access because our Microsoft licenses have expired, so I cannot receive the verification code and therefore cannot retrieve the temporary password.

I then tried going directly to the Microsoft Admin Centre. It asks me to sign in with my email address and password, but I do not have the password because I cannot retrieve it from the 1Password link.

I then tried “Forgot my password”. After entering my email address and the security characters, Microsoft asks me to approve the request or obtain a code through Microsoft Authenticator. I am also unable to complete this authentication.

So I am completely stuck in a loop:

I need access to the Admin Centre to buy the licenses, but I need the password to access the Admin Centre. I cannot retrieve the temporary password because the verification code is being sent to the mailbox that is currently inaccessible.

As my account is the Global Administrator, I need help recovering access to the administrator account or another way of verifying my identity so that I can regain control of the tenant, purchase the licenses and restore our company email accounts.

I am the business owner and can provide any information required to verify ownership of the company, domain or Microsoft tenant.

This is now urgent as the business has been without access to its email accounts for several days.

thank you,

Nathalie

Answer 1

Dear @Nathalie Danon,

Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

Based on your description, I understand that your Microsoft 365 licenses have expired, leaving your organization without access to its email services. You are unable to access the Global Administrator account required to renew the licenses because the temporary password retrieval process sends a verification code to the same mailbox that is currently inaccessible, resulting in a sign-in and password recovery loop.

If you're the only admin, in this situation, the Microsoft Data Protection Team has tools and processes in place to verify identity and regain access to administrator accounts.

Please note that I have no control over user accounts, especially when it comes to logging in to your account, resetting your password, changing your access, etc. 

Therefore, if you are the only administrator in your organization, then you need to involve Microsoft Data Protection Team. Please try to find the related hotline number to call the frontline let them raise a ticket for you: Technical or Sales support phone numbers (for Work account, scroll down to find your region's number) 

In some countries, this is an automated conversation: First, when you call the hotline, they will ask you what kind of problem you are struggling with. 

Answer: Authenticator. 

A: What products do you use? 

B: Office 365 for business. 

Verification: Education or company account? 

B: For companies 

A: Are you an administrator? 

B: Yes. 

A: Are there any other administrators in your organization? 

B: No. 

A: I need one.... Service request? 

B: Yes 

(Important Note to reach a live support agent: Sometimes, you would hear the computer-generated voice at first, please kindly wait for it to end, and if an agent is available, you would be directed to them and get your support. Depending on your country or region, when you call the support number, you may hear an introduction of about 30 seconds such as "You can visit the link...". You can ignore this introduction and wait until you are presented with the options. Then press "1" as a business email user, and again "1" for technical help.) 

As an alternative, you can create a new tenant account and submit your request from there.    

To set up a new tenant, please follow these steps: 

• Visit Compare Office 365 Enterprise Pricing and Plans | Microsoft 365, choose any plan and click try for free to start a free trial.    
• Follow the guided setup process to create a new account for a new tenant. 

Once your tenant is created, you should be able to access the support portal and submit your ticket referencing your locked account without further issues.

In the ticket's description, you could refer to this message "Hello,

I am currently locked out of my Microsoft 365 tenant because multi-factor authentication is enforced, and I am unable to complete the verification process. I am the only global administrator for this tenant, which means I cannot access my account or the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

To resolve this, I have created a new tenant and would like to be connected with the Data Protection Team to verify my identity and assist with regaining access. I am available to provide any required documentation or verification to support the recovery process."

Ticket Support: Log in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center using the newly created trial admin account (not the currently locked one) > Support > Help & Support. You can raise support ticket at: https://admin.microsoft.com/#/support/requests   

• When you open a support ticket, please make sure to turn off the Support Assistant (AI) in the help panel.  
• Several customers have reported issues when the Support Assistant is turned on  the system sometimes fails to display the “Contact Support” option.  
• As shown in the screenshot, simply switch Support Assistant > Off, then type your issue description.  Once the AI is off, the “Contact Support” button will appear normally, allowing you to submit a ticket directly.  

• After clicking on "Help & Support" button, you can type "I need agent support via phone or email". After that, you can click on "Contact support" 
• Choose contact method: "Phone" 
• Fill all the information in this contact support details, please describe your situation carefully so they will have enough information to help you. 
• Finally, click on "Contact me"
• After completing them, you will receive an email appointment for a meeting to review this issue professionally together. 
• For more details, you could refer to this article: Get support for Microsoft 365 for business 
• 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."

Kindly let me know when there are updates or if you need further assistance. Any updates you’re able to share would be really helpful.

I'm here and happy to help! Thank you for your kindness and patience! 

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