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Microsoft Entra Blog
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How it works: Backup and restore for Microsoft Authenticator

Alex Weinert's avatar
Alex Weinert
Bronze Contributor
Nov 13, 2019
Editor’s Note: For up-to-date resources, please visit the following:  Back up account credentials in Microsoft Authenticator - Microsoft Support Restore account credentials from Microsoft Authe...
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Updated Mar 26, 2025
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Alex Weinert's avatar
Bronze Contributor
Joined October 02, 2018
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Microsoft Entra Blog
Stay informed on how to secure access for employees, customers, and non-human identities, from anywhere, to multicloud and on-premises resources, with comprehensive identity and network access solutions powered by AI.
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someone
Copper Contributor
Jul 17, 2020

I was having issues with the sound and haptics on my iPhone and needed to do a reset and restore from iCloud. MSAuthenticator was set to back up to the cloud. I had moved all my accounts out of Google Authenticator because of the horror stories I had heard from people losing codes when getting a new phone or restoring. 

 

Now as it turns out, I ended up losing all the codes I had in MS Authenticator. When going to Recover Accounts, it only loads my account that was associated with the backups in iCloud that I assumed would be used to restore the codes. Ironically, all the codes I had in Authy and Google authenticator are all there without having had to do anything. Is there any way to get them back? Such a bummer.

 

I have been trying to decide between MS and Authy for a while now and it seems like the choice is now obvious which to go if you don't want to lose all your codes in the event of doing a restore on your phone.