Business-tenant lockout. There is no usable path to the Data Protection team.

Question

Account type: Microsoft 365 for business, work account

Role: Global Administrator

Not a privacy/GDPR request. This is an admin sign-in lockout.

What happens

Sign-in with the existing MFA method and password gets as far as combined security-info registration. Microsoft then forces Add your phone number (SMS, Denmark +45). Next fails with:

We ran into a problem. Please try again.

Several mobile numbers were tried, with and without spaces. No SMS is sent. There is no Skip. Authenticator is already registered, but the portal still requires a phone before the admin center can be opened.

Correlation ID: [Moderator note: Personally Identifiable Information removed]

Timestamp: 2026-09-08T07:52:00Z

Our CSP (ArrowSphere) classified this as a Data Protection case and refused to open it, because Microsoft requires identity verification directly with the customer/admin. They pointed only to the public phone list:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/customer-service-phone-numbers-c0389ade-5640-e588-8b0e-28de8afeb3f2

Phone does not work

Called the Denmark business numbers +45 82 33 31 00 and +45 80 40 49 52. Plus twenty calls. Every time the IVR/AI agent hangs up mid-call. It does not understand “Global Admin lockout / Add your phone number / Data Protection”. It loops and disconnects. No human, no case number, no callback.

What was said on the calls:

• Microsoft 365 for business
• Company account
• Tenant
• Yes, I am a Global Administrator
• AdminCenter
• Yes, I need a service request for the Data Protection team

Why the documented workarounds fail here

• Cannot open a ticket in admin.microsoft.com on this tenant, because sign-in stops at phone proof-up.
• aka.ms/sign-in-helper does not clear a forced phone registration that errors before a code is sent.
• This is not a lost-Authenticator-only case. MFA already exists. The block is the extra phone step.
• Moderators on Q&A cannot reset MFA or issue a Temporary Access Pass. That is understood. The missing piece is a written queue.

Ask

Please confirm a non-phone way to open a Data Protection / tenant-lockout case for this tenant: email, admin-center ticket from a different tenant, or a form. If the only supported path is still the IVR, it is currently broken for +45: the bot hangs up, so the documented process cannot be completed.

Requested outcome: Temporary Access Pass for the Global Admin, or the phone proof-up error fixed, so Authenticator-only sign-in can finish. We can verify during Danish business hours once a case number exists.

Answer 1

Hi @Marcus Antoninus

In case the phone support line is unavailable or unable to assist, you could consider to create a separate Microsoft 365 trial tenant and use it solely for submitting a support request. 

Here's how you can do it: 

Go to Microsoft 365 Business Plans & Pricing | Microsoft 365 (select "Try for free" in an enterprise subscription). 

Follow the instructions provided to create a trial tenant. 

Once the new tenant is created, go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Help and Support to submit a support ticket, requesting to speak with the Data Protection Team on behalf of your original tenant. 

In the ticket description, you'll need to clearly explain that you're trying to regain access to your previous Microsoft 365 tenant as a single admin and that you need help from the Data Protection team. 

Note: 

This new trial tenant will not give you access to any data or settings from your original locked-down tenant. It only serves as a temporary means of contacting Microsoft support. 

Remember to cancel the trial subscription of the new tenant once the issue with the original account is resolved, to avoid unwanted charges. Cancel your Microsoft business subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center | Microsoft Learn. 

I hope this information helps you successfully escalate your request and regain access to your tenant. If you have any updates or additional questions, please feel free to reply to this thread. I will be happy to continue assisting you.