New Phone and Microsoft Keeps Asking for a Code

It all comes down to one thing: do you still have the old phone, and does it still turn on? Start there.

If you still have the old phone

1. On a computer, go to aka.ms/mfasetup and sign in with your work email address.
2. Approve the sign-in on your old phone the way you normally would.
3. On the page that opens, click Add sign-in method.
4. Choose Authenticator app and follow the steps on screen.
5. When it shows a QR code, open Microsoft Authenticator on your new phone and scan it.
6. Once the new phone is working, 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 sitting in somebody else's hands.

If the old phone is gone

Try these in order.

Ask for a different verification method

1. On the screen asking for the code, look for a link saying I can't use my Microsoft Authenticator app right now, or Use a different verification option.
2. If it offers a text message or a phone call to your own number, choose that.
3. That gets you signed in. Once you are in, go straight to aka.ms/mfasetup and add the new phone using the steps above.

If nothing else is offered

Text or call us. At that point an administrator has to clear the old setup before the new phone can be added, and that is us.

Have these ready when you get in touch 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 on it from the app store

Why we cannot just email you a code instead. 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 with an email, so could anyone who had got into your email. The few minutes this costs is the protection doing its job.