How it works: Backup and restore for Microsoft Authenticator

Hello Alex Weinert 

I am a Microsoft 365 Global Admin for my company.   I am facing a very frustrating situation with a Microsoft Authenticator backup/restore issue. 

I recently migrated to a new phone.   I turned on the Authenticator backup on the old phone and logged into my personal Microsoft account and did the MSA backup.   I was able to restore to the new phone after using signing into my personal Microsoft account, where I only had a single MFA method setup - SMS.  

I then added what I thought would be a more secure MFA method to my personal Microsoft account:  Authenticator number matching, and one additional method for good measure:  email. 

A couple of weeks later, I discovered that I have a faulty camera on the new phone and the manufacturer had me jump through numerous hoops before they would do an RMA.  One hoop was a factory reset.  I once again did Authenticator backup.    After the factory reset, I installed Microsoft Authenticator and attempted to restore from backup.   I had to login to my personal Microsoft account.  It required a number match in Authenticator, which of course was not yet available.  But since I have two alternate MFA methods set up for my personal account, email and text, I proceeded with clicking the "I don't have access to my Microsoft Authenticator app" link.  I selected the text method.  I was then asked for a second form of MFA and I chose the email method.  I mistyped my email confirmation... The second time I correctly confirmed my email, I get a message that I have requested too many codes and that I have to "wait until tomorrow"   

WTH!

I am really expected to wait 24 hours before I can restore the Microsoft Authenticator data from my personal Microsoft account?  

There are many job responsibilities I am unable to perform today due to this situation.  It's a catch 22 situation that Microsoft as a whole has created, although I am sure it's also a situation where the right-hand of MS (Enterprise) Identity Security is not fully aware of what the left-hand of MS (consumer) Identity Security is doing.  

Will we ever be able to backup Authenticator data with encryption to a local folder and then transfer to an attached computer.  (Like Signal does). 

Will we ever be able to backup Authenticator data to our Work/School accounts where we have paid subscriptions with nearly immediate support? 

Will there ever be a support option for personal accounts where we can request to get back into our account sooner than 24 hours after a "Too many codes" situation?   If you are going to force us to use a personal account to backup MSA, then MS better **bleep** well provide a way to get into our personal accounts without a 24 hour wait when MFA goes awry. 



Who has any solutions... besides waiting for 24 hours?   

sabinasmith can you help if Alex is busy?