Cannot access account with Authenticator because it wants me to use Authenticator to authenticate

Anonymous
2024-01-31T23:31:52+00:00

I can't post this from the account I'm having issues with, but I am trying to get an Authenticator account set up for my Office 365 account, but whenever I try to do that, it asks for the code in Authenticator. But since it isn't set up with Authenticator yet, I cannot give it a code. I'm stuck in a catch 22. I've heard I can get a new QR code if I login and look under security settings, but I cannot login without getting my code from Authenticator, which I don't have set up yet. And I called MS support and they sent me a link to do it, but it will not let me access without the Authentication code from Authenticator, which I cannot access, because it isn't set up yet.

Any help from anyone? Just switch to Google? The only reason I need to do this is because I changed the account password. It didn't need me to authenticate to do that. But it does need me to update that same password change on my phone. So stupid.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

77 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2025-01-16T23:56:10+00:00

    Got it to work finally. I am the admin for our small business. Went into the 365 admin portal, users and clicked on the person that was having the issues. Scrolled to the bottom and clicked on Manage Multifactor Authentication. When that new screen popped up I selected the person who is having the problem then hit User MFA setting, from there I clicked Require Selected Users to Provide Contact Methods Again and his save.

    Now at this point I had 2 phones with authenticator on them. I added the account but this time at the bottom it allowed me to show a QR code. I used the other phone to scan the code through the Authenticator App and the moon and star aligned and I was able to generate codes and fire up my Outlook on phone / PC.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-06T14:13:26+00:00

    This is the STUPIDEST product ever! Fix this loop already!

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2024-11-07T01:30:55+00:00

    I have been trying to do this, and the email is also asking me to authenticate, which I can't do because the authenticator log in is also asking to be authenticated.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-23T00:21:44+00:00

    This is the solution, thank you so much for the workaround, I was struggling with this for the whole morning

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2024-09-11T08:05:52+00:00

    good morning,

    I have the same problem, but it doesn't allow me in mysignins.microsoft.com, because it still asks me for a code from the authenticator app, which is still not working. The authenticator app is also asking me for a code. What should I do?

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments