Forum Discussion
Can't access Microsoft Authenticator for business accounts
Hello. I am the tech support for a small church, where I am the admin for our MS 365 accounts, which are set up as "business accounts". I have been using Microsoft Authenticator for MFA for years. Recently I switched to a new phone and installed Microsoft Authenticator. All of my personal Authenticator accounts transferred over just fine, but all of the church's business accounts say "Scan the QR Code provided by your organization to finish recovering this account". The thing is, I am the "organization" and I don't know how to generate any QR code to recover the accounts. It was suggested that I could do something about this by logging into my Microsoft 365 administrator account, but when I try to log into my admin account, the only MFA option is "enter the code from Microsoft Authenticator". It's not offering a text or alternate email, only Microsoft Authenticator, which is what I'm locked out of. So I'm stuck in a loop.
I opened a ticket with Microsoft Support nine days ago. I have received one phone call since then. The support person insisted that they needed to talk to the account's "alternate administrator", which I set up as my pastor, who is pretty computer savvy but not a deep IT person. They tried to call him one time, but he was not available to answer right then. There has been no communication since then. I'm hoping someone in this group can help me figure this out.
2 Replies
I have the same exact problem after getting a new phone. I tried the self serve options and reset my password. Unfortunately, that has now locked me out of all of my Microsoft 365 apps because everything wants me to use authenticator and does NOT give me an alternative verification method. I called an opened a ticket and the automated system ended by telling me they would send an email to an email account I can't access. When I called back, it told me to reply to the email to add additional comments.
Reseting the password gave me alternative options. I don't know how to get into my account dashboard or my business email.
And if support emails me, I will never know.If the designated alternate administrator does not complete the verification call, Microsoft Support will be unable to proceed with resetting your multi‑factor authentication. The most effective way forward is to ensure that your alternate administrator is available to confirm with Microsoft Support, enabling them to reset your administrator MFA settings.
