Transferring Microsoft Authenticator to a New Device (Already Signed In)

Anonymous
2024-03-11T14:45:25+00:00

I encountered an issue while upgrading my phone and transferring all accounts to the new device. Despite logging into my Microsoft Authenticator account on the new device, I noticed that my profiles didn't transfer. Following online instructions, I backed up to the cloud. However, as I'm already logged in on the new device, I can't locate the prompt to restore from backup nor find the option to log out to access this link. Should I uninstall and reinstall the app, or is there another solution I might be overlooking? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-03-27T15:14:12+00:00

    OK transferring of accounts work, but now each one of them says "action required" and asks me to scan a QR code. Where do I get this QR code from? There is no forward to any website, just asks to scan the code?

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-27T15:27:39+00:00

    It should have populated to enter the email to your organization.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-27T15:54:53+00:00

    OK I figured it out. Need to sign in to MS account website, go to security and add authenticator again. Then it produces the QR code to scan. Thanks everyone.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-27T16:08:01+00:00

    Yes! Yay, glad I could help!!

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-04-09T02:51:36+00:00

    Hi!

    I modified your response a bit and it worked for me. Note that I had installed the authenticator app on my new phone already and even had 2 applications there that I was willing to forego. They were in the old phone. And both remained in the new authenticator after the restore from back up.

    A-On new phone:

    1. I turned cloud back up off - which deleted the back up in the cloud
    2. Went to phone settings > Apps > Authenticator > and did a 'Forced stop" as you said. The forced stop just stayed grayed out. I got impatient and clicked on "uninstall"
    3. Uninstalled Authenticator
    4. Closed all open browsers

    B-On old phone:

    1. turned cloud back up off (to delete whatever is backed up - could be from the new phone which had nothing)
    2. then turned the cloud backup on again to back up the good files in the old phone's authenticator

    C-Back to new phone

    1. installed authenticator app
    2. Restored from back up*

    *Just be careful when you start the authenticator app because it was easy to miss the restore from back up, which I did at first. It is below the sign in portion of the screen. I repeated the entire step from the very beginning step A above to step C and it worked. Of course, the two MS 365 app in the app is asking me to scan the qr code from MS 365 again which was not a problem at all.

    Thank you for sharing. The "Force Stop" was the missing link on most of the instructions on the web.

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