We ran into an error when adding a account to a new phone

Question

We ran into an error when adding a account to a new phone

rich 0

I have both phones at hand with my accounts & passwords ready with mobile numbers for sms authentication.

Apps are up to date, with the date and time automatic with no powersaving, tried on both with wifi and mobile data. I have re-installed, updated, factory reset. pretty much done everything i can see from internet searches to fix this issue including trying to just delete the accounts and re log in.
Im no proud of this but ive been at this for 2 hours now so if theres something i havnt tried please let me know.

Cheers

Pauline Mbabu 1,840 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2026-04-14T20:27:34.7766667+00:00

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out. If this is a personal account you may need your old device to in order to setup MFA on your new phone, or if you retained the same mobile number you should be able to use this.

Go to www.aka.ms/mfasetup login with your username and password, when it prompts for MFA select "I can't use my Microsoft Authenticator app right now" this should show you your alternative MFA methods if they were setup. - If you don't, you will need access to your old device in order to approve the sign-in. Once you're through this part you should be able to setup a new MFA method.

If this is a work account you're better of asking your IT Support to reset your MFA methods, once they do that you can then go to www.aka.ms/mfasetup to set up the new device.

Your answer

Pauline Mbabu 1,840 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2026-04-14T20:27:34.7766667+00:00

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out. If this is a personal account you may need your old device to in order to setup MFA on your new phone, or if you retained the same mobile number you should be able to use this.

Go to www.aka.ms/mfasetup login with your username and password, when it prompts for MFA select "I can't use my Microsoft Authenticator app right now" this should show you your alternative MFA methods if they were setup. - If you don't, you will need access to your old device in order to approve the sign-in. Once you're through this part you should be able to setup a new MFA method.

If this is a work account you're better of asking your IT Support to reset your MFA methods, once they do that you can then go to www.aka.ms/mfasetup to set up the new device.