MFA and Text to cell doesn't work

Question

MFA and Text to cell doesn't work

Corne Boshoff 0

Hi, I lost my phone. Now I cannot log into my admin center as MFA needs that phone and the text also doesn't want to work. Tried calling but the AI bot is no help.

VEMULA SRISAI 13,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-26T06:24:19.4366667+00:00

Hello Corne Boshoff,

Based on the details you’ve shared, this appears to be a tenant lockout scenario.

To resolve this, the recommended approach is to contact the Microsoft Data Protection team. You can reach them by calling Microsoft Customer Service using the phone numbers listed here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/customer-service-phone-numbers-c0389ade-5640-e588-8b0e-28de8afeb3f2

If you have access to another tenant or subscription where you still have Global Administrator privileges, you may also raise a support request from there to get assistance in restoring access to the affected tenant.

For future reference and to help prevent tenant lockouts, please check: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/customers/gdap-preventing-tenant-lockouts

If neither option is possible, please don’t worry—let us know, we are happy to assist you further!

1 answer

Your answer

VEMULA SRISAI 13,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-26T06:24:19.4366667+00:00

Hello Corne Boshoff,

Based on the details you’ve shared, this appears to be a tenant lockout scenario.

To resolve this, the recommended approach is to contact the Microsoft Data Protection team. You can reach them by calling Microsoft Customer Service using the phone numbers listed here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/customer-service-phone-numbers-c0389ade-5640-e588-8b0e-28de8afeb3f2

If you have access to another tenant or subscription where you still have Global Administrator privileges, you may also raise a support request from there to get assistance in restoring access to the affected tenant.

For future reference and to help prevent tenant lockouts, please check: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/customers/gdap-preventing-tenant-lockouts

If neither option is possible, please don’t worry—let us know, we are happy to assist you further!

Answer 1

Because the phone used for MFA is lost and SMS verification also fails, access must be restored by an administrator or by Microsoft support, depending on how many admins exist in the tenant.

If there is another global admin in the tenant
- Ask that admin to reset the MFA settings for the affected admin account:
  1. Sign in to the cloud service portal as admin.
  2. Go to https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/usermanagement/multifactorverification.aspx.
  3. Select the affected admin account.
  4. Select Manage user settings.
  5. Select Require selected users to provide contact methods again, then Save.
- After this, sign in again; the account will be forced to re-register MFA and can be configured with a new phone or Microsoft Authenticator.
If there is no other admin (you are the only global admin)
- This scenario requires Microsoft’s Data Protection team to verify identity and reset the admin’s MFA.
- Call Microsoft’s global customer service phone numbers (see Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support in the context) and clearly state:
  - The issue is with Microsoft Authenticator / MFA for an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 business/Entra ID admin account.
  - It is a company (not education) account.
  - You are the administrator and there is no other admin.
  - You need a service request with the Data Protection team to reset admin MFA.
- Follow their identity verification steps; once verified, they can clear or reset MFA so the admin can sign in and reconfigure methods.
If SMS/text MFA is intermittently failing but another method exists
- On the sign-in page, choose Other verification options and select a different method (for example, Microsoft Authenticator, phone call, or another registered method) if previously configured.
- Ensure the phone number and country/region code in the user’s security verification settings are correct; another global admin can verify this in Microsoft Entra ID.

If none of these options are available and no other verification method is configured, only Microsoft support (Data Protection team) can unblock the tenant admin account.

References: