Microsoft Authenticator is asking me to authenticate using Microsoft Authenticator to use Microsoft Authenticator

Hello,

Read the thread, none of the solutions either seemed to apply to my situation, or work for me if they did.

I am using a Work account. Nothing has changed on our end since the last time I was previously signed in on this same device.
The authenticator app dropped my account info at some point in an app/phone update and is requiring me to re-sign in.

Every attempt to sign in asks me to confirm my sign-in with the authenticator app. Other options include 'sign in via code' (from the same authenticator app).

Can't access excel anymore until I resolve this, but I don't see a solution from this thread really being realistic? This seems very clearly like a back-end issue. Not to be impatient, but it looks very clearly like an unsolvable loop without developer intervention, does it not?

To shed some light on this from a SysAdmin/IT Manager.

1. You do not need to sign in to the MS Authenticator app unless you are using the account to back up your authenticator connections. This is useful when transferring to a new phone or if your device gets factory reset or the app gets uninstalled.
2. When you add your work or school account for MFA, it is is by a url or QR Code and you do not need to sign into the app for this. Just go to the account in your Authenticator list and tap it to get your code. You can access this by tapping "Authenticator" at the bottom of the app.
3. If you still want to use your work account to login to Authenticator you will need to set up a secondary MFA such as a text message. Then select you don't have access to authenticator and use the alternative method.

The loop is just a misunderstanding of how the application works. If you are signing in to MS Authenticator (or anything really) with an MFA enabled account you will need to meet the requirement for strong authentication ether by conditional access policies set by IT such as being on a corporate trusted network or by completing the sign in challenges (Text, Call, Security Key, or Authenticator code). Allowing a sign in to authenticator without these requirements is a huge security risk and would lead to compromised accounts. What would prevent a hacker from using a brute force method on an authenticator to gain access to your account if this process wasn't in place.

We are reaching a point where passwords are meaningless and additional factors are absolutely necessary for all sign-ins. We only have ourselves to blame. When the most common passwords are things like 12345678 or password1 or forced complex passwords result in things like Password12345678! IT admins have no choice but to enact new methods to secure the org and its data. We really only have our own bad password habits to blame for the complexity being introduced for sign-in's.

Hi Folks, I'm having the same issue any fix yet, I'm using an organization account, can access office apps not able to access account info on desktop because of Authenticator and can't access the app because it is asking for authentication

I am not 100% sure whether there'd be support for people in your situation, I did not enter the 'home user' menu over the phone.

There was an option for 'personal email address' under the 'business user' menu, so I'd assume there's something similar under the 'home user' menu.

Note, this phone menu was for NZ Microsoft Support, not sure the menus would be exactly the same in other countries...

Just call the customer care phone number and see where you get.