The support channels are failing miserably
I own a company and registered for a work account 2 years ago. We haven't purchased any Microsoft products yet, and I got logged out of authenticator. We're in a vicious cycle where logging in requires authenticator and authenticator requires authenticator. I called technical support Monday and was told to sign up for new account to log a ticket. Mid-way through the call the agent said his shift ended in 2 minutes and he would call me back Tuesday. He never called back. I followed up and waited on hold for the data and privacy department for 45 minutes 3 times, and each time the call dropped. I tried using the support agent and it won't help me, because it says I'm not the global admin on any of my accounts (this makes no sense). Are there any channels for escalating this? We would like to buy Microsoft 365 for our business, but now I am terrified of doing this, because it seems like there is no way to get technical support.Microsoft Launches Preview for Entra ID Conditional Access Policy Plans
Conditional access policy plans are now available in preview. The idea is to define common rules, conditions like breakglass accounts and have the details inherited by CA policies. Microsoft provides a migration facility to move existing policies to plans, but it’s probably going to take some time for tenants to inventory their current CA policies, understand points of commonality, and slowing move towards rationalization. https://office365itpros.com/2026/10/29/conditional-access-policy-plans/
Lost trying to activate Office Professional 2021 on machine Frankensteined from an old one
We had a terrible old PC that was running Office Pro 21 with valid key.~ I was given an nicer PC which was effectively a shell with two blank drives and a better spec. I placed the C from the old PC into a newer build and did a fresh Windows install and the Old C became a slave drive but was not wiped. I thought I would be able to install Windows Pro again on the new drive as it was a valid code but it seems not. Perhaps it's for one device only. The Old C became the E and is still accessible but I can't use and access the Office Suite and activation states that the code has already been used or is invalid. I don't know how to approach this. The original code was valid, can the code only be used on one device? I'm not sure how to resolve this. I would really appreciate some advice about how to approach this as the website doesn't really provide the answer. Please do ask if you have require any more info and thanks in advance for any help.
No acces to local Office365 apps with an account which differs from the current windows account
Hi, guys! I'm working with Windows 11 Pro using the Microsoft account ABC. Today I bought a Office 365 Family License - by using another Microsoft account XYZ. I downloaded the local apps successfully... ...but when I start the local app and tried to sign in using the XYZ account, I'm asked for the Windows Hello Pin for the XYZ account - but there is no PIN for that, because the account doesn't exist as a Windows account at this computer at all. Copilot says: "You can sign in to Windows 11 with one Microsoft account and use a different Microsoft 365/Office account for Office applications. Microsoft supports this setup." What did I wrong - what can I do? Kind regards! SebastianHacked Microsoft Account Recovery with Semi Access
I'm at a complete loss and it is infuriatingly ridiculous. I am entirely unable to get a hold of a human being at Microsoft and am being turned down by automated responses nonstop. So here's what's happening: My Microsoft account has been hijacked (obviously not this one) for its valuable Minecraft account and has now been sold. I am logged into my account via my PC, have full access of the main email address, but I have been locked out of my account using the alias email. Whenever I want to log in to my account, it wants to instead send a code to an email address I do not own and can't access. I have tried the Sign-In Helper, the Recovery Form, the hotline, the support email without any result, let alone a non-automated response. I sadly don't have the Recovery Code of my 15 year old-ish account. Since I still have full access of my email address I get updates of security info being changed and what not. Last month a stranger sent me screenshots of someone trying to sell my Minecraft account, for which I myself have received multiple buying offers, and voila yesterday I received notification of my alias mail address changing followed by Minecraft server apps being added to my Microsoft account. While I had already given up retrieving my account, whenever I get notifications my heart sinks a new while some hope sparks up again. Do you people have any idea of what I could do? I don't even rule out legal actions at this point. While I do of course have the email address of the hijacker and the buyer, I fear that contacting them results in me being locked out permanently. I'm just begging to catch the attention of anyone involved with Microsoft. This being walled out with automated responses is killing me.Sketchy behaviour from Microsoft on MFA - what gives?
Recently, Microsoft has overwritten our Authentication Method Registration campaign settings, from 'Disabled' to 'Microsoft Managed' for dozens of tenants. Thanks guys. That's not super sketchy at all. /s This was ostensibly done for the Retiring of Voice and SMS based MFA or, as the article puts it 'To help enterprises adopt AI at scale,'.... what? Not because they're garbage MFA methods? But so Microsoft can market-capture MFA? Regardless of that bizarre statement, this article is sub par - like most Microsoft 'help' docs, it appears to have been written by someone in Marketing, with no technical experience. My chief concern is that the term 'OTP' doesn't appear ANYWHERE in here. So, for us and our customers - who block Voice/SMS already - this is alarming. Microsoft's Passkey flow is confusing af to people - and since it includes SYNCED passkeys by default, it faces the same risks as OTP. We specifically HAVEN'T rolled out passkeys because everytime we do, people get confused and frustrated - because they'll have 3-4 different things pop-up, offering to take a sync'd passkey. Really concerned with my 'do not allow microsoft to manage' setting, being explicitly set to 'Microsoft managed', and whatever decisions they're NOT publicly addressing at this point. We've spent years teaching people to use Microsoft Authenticator and password vault-based OTP. Now, Microsoft is pushing everyone to keep using those same tools, but to go through the mess that is the passkey setup interface?I built a free, open-source M365 security assessment tool - looking for feedback
I work as an IT consultant, and a good chunk of my time is spent assessing Microsoft 365 environments for small and mid-sized businesses. Every engagement started the same way: connect to five different PowerShell modules, run dozens of commands across Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender, SharePoint, and Teams, manually compare each setting against CIS benchmarks, then spend hours assembling everything into a report the client could actually read. The tools that automate this either cost thousands per year, require standing up Azure infrastructure just to run, or only cover one service area. I wanted something simpler: one command that connects, assesses, and produces a client-ready deliverable. So I built it. What M365 Assess does https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess is a PowerShell-based security assessment tool that runs against a Microsoft 365 tenant and produces a comprehensive set of reports. Here is what you get from a single run: 57 automated security checks aligned to the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark v6.0.1, covering Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender for Office 365, SharePoint Online, and Teams 12 compliance frameworks mapped simultaneously -- every finding is cross-referenced against NIST 800-53, NIST CSF 2.0, ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS v4.0.1, CMMC 2.0, CISA SCuBA, and DISA STIG (plus CIS profiles for E3 L1/L2 and E5 L1/L2) 20+ CSV exports covering users, mailboxes, MFA status, admin roles, conditional access policies, mail flow rules, device compliance, and more A self-contained HTML report with an executive summary, severity badges, sortable tables, and a compliance overview dashboard -- no external dependencies, fully base64-encoded, just open it in any browser or email it directly The entire assessment is read-only. It never modifies tenant settings. Only Get-* cmdlets are used. A few things I'm proud of Real-time progress in the console. As the assessment runs, you see each check complete with live status indicators and timing. No staring at a blank terminal wondering if it hung. The HTML report is a single file. Logos, backgrounds, fonts -- everything is embedded. You can email the report as an attachment and it renders perfectly. It supports dark mode (auto-detects system preference), and all tables are sortable by clicking column headers. Compliance framework mapping. This was the feature that took the most work. The compliance overview shows coverage percentages across all 12 frameworks, with drill-down to individual controls. Each finding links back to its CIS control ID and maps to every applicable framework control. Pass/Fail detail tables. Each security check shows the CIS control reference, what was checked, what the expected value is, what the actual value is, and a clear Pass/Fail/Warning status. Findings include remediation descriptions to help prioritize fixes. Quick start If you want to try it out, it takes about 5 minutes to get running: # Install prerequisites (if you don't have them already) Install-Module Microsoft.Graph, ExchangeOnlineManagement -Scope CurrentUser Clone and run git clone https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess.git cd M365-Assess .\Invoke-M365Assessment.ps1 The interactive wizard walks you through selecting assessment sections, entering your tenant ID, and choosing an authentication method (interactive browser login, certificate-based, or pre-existing connections). Results land in a timestamped folder with all CSVs and the HTML report. Requires PowerShell 7.x and runs on Windows (macOS and Linux are experimental -- I would love help testing those platforms). Cloud support M365 Assess works with: Commercial (global) tenants GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments If you work in government cloud, the tool handles the different endpoint URIs automatically. What is next This is actively maintained and I have a roadmap of improvements: More automated checks -- 140 CIS v6.0.1 controls are tracked in the registry, with 57 automated today. Expanding coverage is the top priority. Remediation commands -- PowerShell snippets and portal steps for each finding, so you can fix issues directly from the report. XLSX compliance matrix -- A spreadsheet export for audit teams who need to work in Excel. Standalone report regeneration -- Re-run the report from existing CSV data without re-assessing the tenant. I would love your feedback I have been building this for my own consulting work, but I think it could be useful to the broader community. If you try it, I would genuinely appreciate hearing: What checks should I prioritize next? Which security controls matter most in your environment? What compliance frameworks are most requested by your clients or auditors? How does the report land with non-technical stakeholders? Is the executive summary useful, or does it need work? macOS/Linux users -- does it run? What breaks? I have tested it on macOS, but not extensively. Bug reports, feature requests, and contributions are all welcome on GitHub. Repository: https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess License: MIT (free for commercial and personal use) Runtime: PowerShell 7.x Thanks for reading. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.
Aucun accès au compte administrateur général, authentification MFA hors service
Bonjour, C'est un SOS que j'écris ici : je suis administratrice générale et la seule personne de ce compte Microsoft 365. Depuis un changement de téléphone, l'authentification MFA ne fonctionne plus : j'ai supprimé mon compte Microsoft dans l'application Authenticator sur mon ancien téléphone, puis ai téléchargé l'app sur mon nouveau. Impossible de m'enregistrer sur mon nouveau téléphone ni de retrouver l’authentification sur l'ancien : cela crée une boucle infinie de demande de code Authenticator auquel je n'ai plus accès. Aujourd'hui je n'ai plus du tout accès à mon compte : j'ai dû me connecter ici avec mon adresse personnelle pour accéder au forum. Microsoft est mon outil de travail, principalement pour l'usage de Copilot Pro, car je suis formatrice à Copilot Pro (et donc, promotrice des services Microsoft !!) J'ai tenté plusieurs fois d'appeler le service téléphonique, c'est une IA qui décroche, or son niveau de qualité de service client est déplorable, je ne m'étendrais pas ici, mais c'est une honte pour Microsoft d'un point de vue expérience utilisateur et IA... Mon ticket est existant mais je n'ai eu aucun retour, pas même le mail promis par l'IA téléphonique, qui devait sur l'adresse de secours fournie pendant le 1er échange téléphonique. En bref, je tourne en rond et n'ai aucun recours, donc je sollicite ici s'il vous plaît, s'il vous plaît, le modérateur du forum qui pourrait faire remonter mon ticket au service client ? Mon numéro de ticket : 2609 3014 2000 0444 Merci infinimentMicrosoft Authenticator backup not recognized by the same recovery account
My old Android phone has completely failed, so I can no longer access Microsoft Authenticator on that device. I had previously enabled Cloud Backup in Microsoft Authenticator, and I am certain that I am signing in with the same Microsoft personal account that was originally used as the recovery account. On my new Android phone, I reinstalled Microsoft Authenticator and selected “Restore from backup / Begin recovery” before adding any accounts. I then signed in with the same Microsoft personal account. However, Authenticator says that the backup is not stored under this account and asks me to try another personal Microsoft account. I am certain that this is the correct recovery account. Both the old phone and the new phone are Android devices, so this is not a cross-platform restore issue. I would like to know: Could this be a problem with the association between the cloud backup and the recovery account? Is there any way for the Microsoft Authenticator team to verify whether a backup still exists? Is there any supported way to recover the original backup instead of manually resetting and re-enrolling every third-party 2FA account? My old device is completely inaccessible, so I cannot open Authenticator there or create a new backup. Any guidance from the Microsoft Authenticator or Identity team would be appreciated.Need to Restore PST Files to Office 365 Mailboxes - What's the Best Approach
Hey everyone, I have a task coming up where I need to restore several PST files back into Office 365 mailboxes. Haven't done this before at this scale and honestly not sure where to begin. I've looked at Microsoft's native import service through Purview but I have a few concerns: Some of the PST files are quite large — not sure how well it handles that I need to restore only specific folders for some users, not the entire PST I'm worried about data consistency after the restore Would prefer something that doesn't require too many admin roles or complex setup For those who have done PST to Office 365 restores — what approach worked best for you? Any tools, tips, or things to watch out for that you wish you knew before starting?
