Lost all my accounts within Microsoft Authenticator

If there is no Authenticator backup available now, the saved one-time password entries cannot be recovered from Microsoft Authenticator.

What can still be done:

1. Check whether recovery was started correctly.
   • Open Authenticator on the new phone.
   • On the welcome screen, choose Restore from backup or Begin recovery before signing in.
   • Use the same personal Microsoft account that was used for the backup.
   • If Restore from backup is not shown, remove or sign out of all accounts in Authenticator, then try recovery again.
2. Verify the restore requirements.
   • Backup and restore only work on the same device type.
   • An iOS backup cannot be restored to Android, and an Android backup cannot be restored to iOS.
   • If backup was never enabled on the old phone, or it was tied to a different recovery account, restore will not find it.
3. If recovery still shows no backup, re-add each account manually.
   • For Microsoft personal accounts, work or school accounts, and third-party accounts such as GitHub, the fallback is to add the accounts again.
   • Use each service’s account recovery or alternate sign-in methods, such as email, phone, backup codes, or other registered methods, then re-enroll Authenticator for that account.
4. For work or school accounts, only the account name is restored even when backup exists.
   • Those accounts still require signing in again to complete setup.
   • If access is blocked and no alternate method is available, contact the organization’s IT admin or help desk to reset MFA methods or provide the approved recovery process.
5. If access to the backup account itself is the problem, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper.
   • If the backup account cannot be accessed, support cannot restore the Authenticator credentials.

In the current situation, since email and phone verification still work for some services, the practical path is to recover each account individually and then add it back into Authenticator. For GitHub and other third-party accounts, the verification code entry is only restorable if a valid Authenticator backup existed; otherwise those entries must be set up again from the service side.

• Restore account credentials from Microsoft Authenticator
• Restore account credentials from Microsoft Authenticator
• Restore account credentials from Microsoft Authenticator
• Back up your accounts in Microsoft Authenticator
• Back up your accounts in Microsoft Authenticator
• Transfer Microsoft Authenticator account entries to a new phone
• Transfer Microsoft Authenticator account entries to a new phone
• Transfer Microsoft Authenticator account entries to a new phone