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

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-01-17T00:09:44+00:00

    That's great you were able to fix someone else's issue.

    But the OP and everyone else here is having trouble with their account and don't have an admin to help them.

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  2. 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.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-01-15T19:53:38+00:00

    Michael,

    Thank you. Those are the best steps so far.

    Since I have no trouble changing my password, I've been using "Can't access authenticator" or some variant.

    So I'll tell a little white lie to get to a hu-man <said in my best Ferengi voice>

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-01-15T19:25:11+00:00

    Firstly, I used Chrome with an incognito tab and it worked. Now, that said, it's possible Microsoft Support did something first. That I don't know.

    1. I called the support line and said business customer
    2. I said "problems logging into Microsoft 365" This is important because it puts the AI down a different track.
    3. Say you are a global admin, you tried to change password, and there was no error code.
    4. These answers got me to a live person.
    5. Now you can get a support number and in 2 weeks Data Retrieval (or whatever it's called) called me back.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-01-15T19:09:36+00:00

    Microsoft support helped me with this issue and it's actually quite simple:

    1. Open an incognito tab
    2. Login to your account
    3. It should ask you how to setup authentication.

    Done!

    I tried both Edge and Firefox and both wants me to enter a code from the authenticator.

    How did you contact Microsoft support?

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