Unable to add a work or school account to authenticator app

Question

Hello
I have a problem with a new customer that one of the users cannot add his account to the authentication app. All other users could easily add their accounts.
The MFA is intended to secure access to Microsoft 365.
The following message appears:

"Unable to add account.
We were unable to add the account. Make sure that the activation code is correct and that push notifications are enabled for this app on your phone."

To rule out that it is a problem with the phone, I tried to add this account on a phone that runs the Authenticator app with multiple accounts without any problems. Again, the same error message comes up.

It can't be due to the settings of the tenant or the settings on the mobile phone.

What other points can I check so that this one user can also secure his account via the Authenticator app?

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Hi,

the administrator has to go to Microsoft Entra admin center, then in the "Protection" section go to "Multifactor authentication" there is a menu "Block/unblock users".

The user receiving the same error ("Unable to add account.
We were unable to add the account. Make sure that the activation code is correct and that push notifications are enabled for this app on your phone.") was blocked there.

F.

Answer 2

Hello,

There is a setting in the Azure portal where use of the authenticator app can be blocked for a period of x days. In my case, the user accidentally activated this setting for his authenticator app. Since this had happened by accident, he could not remember. As an admin, I was able to correct the setting and the authenticator app worked as expected again.

Kind regards

Christine