Forum Discussion
No workaround for Authenicator 2FA being required, but Authenticator not a viable option.
I have a Microsoft 365 Business Standard account for my business domain. I am a one-man show, so there is just the one real user and it is the admin for the account.
Late last Thursday, MS logged me out of that account for essentially everything everywhere. To log back in, it's challenging me with 2FA. OK, no big deal, but it is demanding an Authenticator code - even from apps where that wasn't previously a requirement. OK, no problem, except that I just swapped phones and have not recreated my Authenticator tokens as yet and the old phone was traded in. In short, I don't have Authenticator access. OK, no problem, use the alternate email (which is verifiably set up) and phone (also set up) as an alternate. It will let me do this to reset the password, but then it wants me to log back in - using Authenticator. In short, every path I have requires authenticator, and that is simply not possible.
Since I am the sole person, I am also the sole administrator. Even if I had set up a second administrator account, it likely would have required Authenticator. In short, I am essentially solidly locked out of my account even though my ownership can be verified.
For the moment, I removed MS as my domain host and reactivated an old mail server, so the "My business is not able to respond to clients" crisis is reduced. That said, I can't access the mail that came in in the interim, I can't access any cloud storage files that didn't have a copy local already, and I'm still being billed for a non-functional service that I couldn't even log in to cancel if that's what I wanted to do.
I need a path that is not a $500 support ticket to resolve what I see as a simply inexcusable single point of failure on MS's part. There is no phone support - it pushes me to the website, which demands I log in, which I can't do without Authenticator.
5 Replies
SpeakerRob Good evening and happy holidays!
Did you try to recover from iCloud? According to this link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/back-up-and-recover-account-credentials-in-the-authenticator-app-bb939936-7a8d-4e88-bc43-49bc1a700a40. You can recover your token on a new phone as it's backed up in the cloud. If you are still asked for a QR code or account recovery, reach out to Microsoft at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/
A future alternative solution of 2FA management to consider:
Now I'm an early adopter of 2FA, and there was a time that this backup option wasn't available in most 2FA apps. I encountered this exact issue and found https://authy.com/features/ to have the most features, including backing up and reminding you of your backup recovery code every 30 days. It's a pain, but it added a layer of protection on account recovery without needing further verifications.
Robert Penn
Penn Computer Consultants
- Call support directly, you can find the numbers here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/support-contact-info?view=o365-worldwide
- Note this line in my post:
" There is no phone support - it pushes me to the website, which demands I log in, which I can't do without Authenticator."
I've made plenty of calls. No matter what I do it winds up sending me to the aka.ms website which, in turn, demands I authenticate and that authentication requires Authenticator.- I don’t know how you can’t get help over the phone. I called them this week helping a customer that forgot their username to sign in and I successfully got help over the phone. It took a few calls to prove we actually were the owner of the tenant (which I like… they shouldnt trust anyone with that :)) but I got help at least - no Authenticator needed.
