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

Can't say since I've never been stuck in that loop, but I'd guess that the initial installation has somehow been corrupted.

In that case the first thing I'd probably try is to completely uninstall the Authenticator app from the phone, restart the phone to insure it's fully removed and then start over following the instructions to the letter. Can't say what went wrong initially for you, but it must be rare, or we'd see more of these complaints here already.

Remember, we're volunteers here, so don't have the full resources that Microsoft Support might at our disposal, meaning our responses are our best effort based on personal knowledge and your description of the problem.

Rob

Thanks Rob...we have an 'ops' email used by the warehouse to send dispatch notes. Technically an unmonitored email, we do get customers responding to it. Given that, we want access to the email. The Authenticator cycle of doom won't let us set up.

Hey, if we’re lucky, maybe I can give vague guidance that could actually help somebody out! Please, don’t shoot me if it doesn't. But I actually got out of the loop successfully and will here try to share my experience by my best ability. It requires access to the Microsoft 365 admin center, so if you are not an administrator you will first need to go to her or him. Sorry if everybody in your organisation is locked out, then this won't save you. In my case, the accounts are workplace type accounts.

• Have the administrator log into the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• In the left menu, find Users -> Active users
• Above the user list itself, a menu bar emerges with entries like Add a user, User templates ... Click “Multi-factor authentication” (MFA).
• This gives a new tab, new user list, and MFA status per user in one column. (In my case, funnily, my looping colleague showed status “inactive” – so why was he forced to use Microsoft Authenticator if MFA was even inactive?!)
• Mark the problematic user in the list, and some options appear on the right. Click “Manage user settings” (or equivalent, I am on an exotic language myself so can’t tell literally).
• A dialogue opens with three checkboxes. And here goes the crazy thing: Tick “Require selected users to re-enter contact methods”, then “save”. (Again, not literal but by my spontaneous translation.)
• At this point, I don’t fully remember, but somehow it generated a new user experience for the looped user. Starting on the laptop, it was possible to enter the account, with access to some user settings, including some security settings. Fiddling around, and clicking “Next” on some prompt, there was a QR code appearing for the possibility of connecting the Authenticator app by scanning it.
• I think we deleted the account from the phone Authenticator and launched it again from scratch. I guess we selected the workplace account type, then the QR reader method.

(By the way, I am thinking it might be a positive thing to populate the account with a mobile number, a backup email address etc, to enable alternatives to the Authenticator until it works. This is what I tried to do, at least.)

This solution happened only after loads of lost hours of trying this and that, and the solution is the least intuitive you could imagine so it’s not strange there are currently 420 me-toos on this post and seemingly no solution presented by MS (which, if so, tells you something about MS, too, I guess). At my help was Vivek G. on Freelancer, so cred to him for providing the key idea in figuring out.

Hope this could work for you folks out there, too!

Tormod,

If you had 2-Step authentication (2FA) turned on then you'll need 2 alternate ways to identify yourself, which if your phone number has remained the same then one of these could be texting a code to that number.

From what I've seen, there's always an option to select alternate methods on the Microsoft account login page, it's just not always that clearly named and instead something like More Choices or something similar. I just tried this while blocking my camera to cause Hello Face to fail and it then offered options that seemed related to Work or School accounts like a key, which once I caused one of those to fail (Passkey using QR code displayed), it then finally offered another set of selections including account password, which worked as expected on my tablet which is already a trusted device in my account.

Typically, if you still know your Micrsoft password then that can be the first and you can then use these to access your Microsoft account at the following link in order to Remove the 'Send sign-in notification' selection under Security, Advanced Security options.

Microsoft account | Sign In or Create Your Account Today – Microsoft

This disables the Authenticator entirely and then you can uninstall Authenticator and restart the process using the following instructions to set it up again from scratch. You may also want to disable 2FA while logged in to make it easier to do all of this until you've gotten Authenticator reinstalled and working properly.

Add personal Microsoft accounts to the Microsoft Authenticator app - Microsoft Support

If you were using 2FA and you don't have an alternate form of identity such as your Microsoft password or a secondary email address, you may have to submit an account recovery request to Microsoft to see if they'll use whatever identity info you do have in order to regain control.

Help with the Microsoft account recovery form - Microsoft Support

Now that you've learned how easy it is to lock yourself out of your account with additional security options like Authenticator and 2FA enabled, make sure you have multiple alternate identity methods created and kept up to date to ensure it can't happen again.

Rob

Dean and any of the others in this thread.

Were you trying to set up the Authenticator app for the first time when this problem occurred, or had you already been using it for a while when the issue appeared for some unknown reason?

If the former, what instructions did you follow to set it up (URL) and at what point in those steps did this situation first appear?

As I inferred in my last post, the fact the image shows the 'Authenticator' selection on the bottom left grayed out means the actual authenticator portion of the app was never set up properly, while the Passwords section is a password manager for other 3rd-party sites.

In your case Dean you're clear that you can't access email, so does that mean you're totally locked out of your account, or do you still have some access, just not to certain apps?

The reason I ask is that if you can access your Microsoft Account profile at the following URL, then you might be able to Remove the 'Send sign-in notification' selection from the 'Ways to prove who you are' section of the Security, Advanced Security page.

Microsoft account | Home

This is the selection that enables the Authenticator and should revert to using the other available items like password, Email or Text a code instead.

Otherwise, I'd probably contact Microsoft Support directly for their suggestions, since no one here can directly aid with account issues.

Rob