Transferring ms authenticator to another phone

Question

Hello everyone
I was able to transfer my office 365 records to a new phone, using a cloud backup.
But I see an error that I need to activate them all again, that is, go through the full setup again. I have a lot of such records, the question is, what is the point of a backup if you need to configure everything again?
Is there any way to turn off this setting so that activation is not required again after the backup?

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Answer 1

Wow, this has been a problem for over 2 years? I also have about 80 accounts for which Microsoft Authenticator is now broken. Dashlane and LastPass have ZERO problems. Google Authenticator has ZERO problems. Authy, zero problems.

Which app is a preposterous POS? Microsoft Authenticator. Microsoft's concept of a "backup" is a list of broken accounts? Absurd.

I would go farther and say Microsoft Authenticator is a trap. It tricks you into putting accounts into a POS which will become a future time vampire. How many of its users have discovered its backup is not a backup?

Your MFA codes backup is literally garbage with Microsoft--let that sink in. Your backup of your MFA codes is not sufficient to recover your keys--think again about what this really means.

Get Google Authenticator or literally any other product and never Microsoft. Lesson learned.

Answer 2

If a different organization/company has given you access to a sharepoint/onedrive and now you have switched to a new phone using the back up option described in "Back up and recover account credentials in the Authenticator app" you will receive the message "Scan the QR code provided by your organization..." under all the external accounts.

Under My Account  click organizations on the top right and follow Set up the Microsoft Authenticator app as your verification method for each organization you need to verify by scanning the QR code.

Answer 3

Hello,

Im about to change my work phone but i have around 60 accounts setup within the microsoft authenticator app. Reading the answere above, it means i will have to re-setup all of the MFA on the phone? Can you image how long will it take to re-setup all the accounts on it? Is there any way to transwer this to the new phone and O365 tenancy will update automatically with the new phone details?

Thanks

Roland

Answer 4

@Ilya
Thank you for the clarification on this!

Based off our Back up and recover account credentials in the Authenticator app documentation, what you're seeing within your app - Scan the QR code provided by your organization..., is by design, and is needed in order to recover your account. You can only disable this by removing your account from the authenticator app via the Account Security or My Apps page, along with from within your App. To find the QR code you can reference our Set up the Microsoft Authenticator app or Set up Security info from a sign-in page documentation.

Recover accounts requiring more verification:

If you use push notifications with your personal or work or school accounts, you'll get an on-screen alert that says you must provide additional verification before you can recover your information. Because push notifications require using a credential that's tied to your specific device and never sent over the network, you must prove your identity before the credential is created on your device.

For personal Microsoft accounts, you can prove your identity by entering your password along with an alternate email or phone number. For work or school accounts, you must scan a QR code given to you by your account provider.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Thank you for your time and patience throughout this issue.

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Answer 5

I did same mistake, during first start you need to select retrieve from backup and not go futher. But I found out that if you just delete identities from old phone, you still can logon later to MS services and re-register MS Auth App again.