New phone and Microsoft keeps asking for a code
You replaced your phone and the Microsoft sign-in wants a code from an app that is not on it.
Microsoft wants a code from an app that is on your old phone, not your new one. It all comes down to one thing: do you still have the old phone, and does it still turn on?
Do this first: if you still have the old phone
- On a computer, go to mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info and sign in with your work email address. The short address aka.ms/mfasetup takes you to the same page.
- Approve the sign-in on your old phone the way you normally would.
- Click Add sign-in method.
- Choose Authenticator app and follow the steps on screen.
- When it shows a QR code, open Microsoft Authenticator on your new phone and scan it.
- Once the new phone works, go back to that page and delete the entry for the old phone.
Do not skip step 6. If the old phone stays on the list and you later sell it or trade it in, that is a working key to your account in somebody else's hands.
If the old phone is gone
Ask for a different way to verify
- On the screen asking for the code, look for I can't use my Microsoft Authenticator app right now or Use a different verification option.
- If it offers a text message or a phone call to your own number, choose that.
- Once you are in, go straight to mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info and add the new phone using the steps above.
If nothing else is offered
An administrator has to clear the old setup before the new phone can be added, and that is us. Have these ready and it takes about two minutes:
- The email address you sign in with
- Your new phone, unlocked and next to you
- Microsoft Authenticator already installed from the app store
Why we cannot just email you a code. The whole point of this step is that somebody who has your password still cannot get in without your phone. If we could switch it off by email, so could anyone who had got into your email. The few minutes this costs is the protection doing its job.
Did this not sort it out?
As soon as the sign-in offers no other way to verify. Please do not keep trying codes from the old app.
Tell Michael which step you got to and what the screen says. A photo of the screen from your phone is perfect.