Share via

New phone use for work and personal

Darrick Brown 0 Reputation points
2026-06-04T17:23:10.15+00:00

Authenticator app has work profile and says use to log into other apps

Personal profile says to log into this app need it to work to log into other apps

Microsoft Security | Microsoft Authenticator
0 comments

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Darren-Ng 10,620 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-06-05T00:19:08.24+00:00

    Dear @Darrick Brown,

    Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Based on your description, you have changed to new phone and cannot use authenticator app to log in. Please correct me if I misunderstand your point.

    If your account is a business account, your company IT team or Helpdesk may be able to reset your Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) settings. This will allow you to reconfigure MFA from scratch on your new device.  As a forum moderator, I do not have administrative access to change these settings. Only your IT team has the ability to adjust or reset your MFA configuration. You can also refer to this Microsoft support article for more information: Manage authentication methods - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn  

    In case you are the only Global Administrator and you are completely locked out from the tenant. You might need to contact Microsoft Support team via phone service number: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support. The agent will be able to create a ticket for you under the affected tenant and then transfer this ticket to Data Protection team who could help you to regain access.   

    To help you navigate the automated phone system (IVR), here's an example of what the conversation might look like:

    IVR: What kind of problem are you worried about?

    You: Admin account locked

    IVR: What kind of product do you use?

    You: Office 365 for business

    IVR: Does it count for education or business?

    You: For Business

    IVR: Are you an admin?

    You: Yes

    IVR: Do you have another administrator in your organization?

    You: No

    IVR: Need a service request?

    You: Yes

    This should help you connect with a live support agent who can help you directly.

    If you can't create a support ticket during the call, I recommend creating a temporary tenant account and submitting the support request from there. To create a new tenant, follow these steps:

    1. Visit Office 365 E3 - Enterprise Collaboration and Productivity | Microsoft    
    2. Select any plan and click Try for free.    
    3. Complete the setup to create a new tenant.    
    4. Ticket support: In the Microsoft 365 admin center>support>help & support. You can create a support ticket: https://admin.microsoft.com/#/support/requests     

    Important: Please remember to cancel the trial subscription once your issue is resolved to avoid any charges.    
    I hope my information meet your expectations, please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments

  2. AI answer

    2026-06-04T17:23:23.7766667+00:00

    The situation indicates an “MFA loop” where each profile (work and personal) requires Microsoft Authenticator to sign in, but Authenticator itself also needs those sign-ins to finish setup.

    Resolve this by breaking the loop using an alternative sign-in method and then resetting/re-registering Authenticator for each account.

    For the work account:

    1. Sign in using an alternative method if available (SMS, phone call, hardware token, or another registered method) instead of Authenticator.
    2. Ask the organization’s IT admin to reset MFA for the work account in Microsoft Entra admin center:
      • Go to Identity → Users → All users → select the user → Authentication methods → select Require re-register multifactor authentication.
      • After this, sign in again on the new phone and add the work account to Authenticator from scratch.
    3. If the work account is the only admin account and there is no other admin to reset MFA, contact Microsoft support/Data Protection via the business support channel so they can help regain access and reset MFA.

    For the personal Microsoft account:

    1. If still signed in on any other device (PC, old phone, browser), go to the account security page and either:
      • Turn off two-step verification temporarily, or
      • Turn off passwordless sign-in if enabled.
    2. After turning off 2FA/passwordless, sign in on the new phone using just the password, then re-enable 2FA and re-add the personal account in Authenticator.
    3. If no other device is signed in and no alternative methods work, use the account recovery flow for the personal account and follow the prompts until access is restored, then reconfigure Authenticator.

    If Outlook mobile is available and signed in with the work account, Outlook can also be used as an MFA method (notification or TOTP) to get past the initial sign-in and then re-register Authenticator.

    Once at least one account is successfully signed in and added to Authenticator on the new phone, use that working method to cleanly remove and re-add any remaining accounts so they no longer depend on the old device.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

    Was this answer helpful?

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.