Lost Access to Entra External ID Tenant, how to recover?

Question

Lost Access to Entra External ID Tenant, how to recover?

Zach Cash 5

Hello,

Recently I have been unable to log into an Entra External ID tenant under my subscription in Azure. When prompted for MFA, it rejects the codes from my Microsoft Authenticator app. When trying the send notification to authenticator option, it does not send any notification and swiping down to refresh says there are no pending notifications.

Could I please get some help resetting the MFA for the external id tenant.

VEMULA SRISAI 13,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-12T20:38:37.04+00:00

Hello Zach Cash,

It appears that you are currently unable to access your Entra External ID tenant because the MFA prompts are failing and no alternative verification method is available. When this happens and there are no additional Global Administrators to reset MFA, ownership verification is required before we can help you regain access.

To move forward and escalate this case to Microsoft’s Data Protection Team, we need to collect a few details from you. Since this involves Personally Identifiable Information (PII), please share the requested details only through a private message (do not post them publicly):
Sundararaman, Venkataraman 1 Reputation point

2026-05-11T13:46:20.3333333+00:00

I am having the same issue as I lost my old phone am the only administrator for the external id tenant. Was Microsoft able to resolve this issue
kagiyama yutaka 5,330 Reputation points

2026-05-15T16:57:01.88+00:00

I think the catch with External ID is that it has no fallback admin path, so the only supported recovery is an ownership‑check by MS support and an auth‑methods reset requested from the subscription u still hold.

Your answer

VEMULA SRISAI 13,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-12T20:38:37.04+00:00

Hello Zach Cash,

It appears that you are currently unable to access your Entra External ID tenant because the MFA prompts are failing and no alternative verification method is available. When this happens and there are no additional Global Administrators to reset MFA, ownership verification is required before we can help you regain access.

To move forward and escalate this case to Microsoft’s Data Protection Team, we need to collect a few details from you. Since this involves Personally Identifiable Information (PII), please share the requested details only through a private message (do not post them publicly):
Sundararaman, Venkataraman 1 Reputation point

2026-05-11T13:46:20.3333333+00:00

I am having the same issue as I lost my old phone am the only administrator for the external id tenant. Was Microsoft able to resolve this issue
kagiyama yutaka 5,330 Reputation points

2026-05-15T16:57:01.88+00:00

I think the catch with External ID is that it has no fallback admin path, so the only supported recovery is an ownership‑check by MS support and an auth‑methods reset requested from the subscription u still hold.