Enable backup of microsoft authenticator with work accounts

René Sinnbeck 80

We have started forcing our users to use 2FA. For this we use Microsoft Authenticator. Now it has come to my attention that we cannot backup the keys without also forcing all of our users to create a personal microsoft account? How can we get around this? If a phone breaks, how can we restore that persons 2FA keys?

Adam Smith 0 Reputation points

2024-02-20T14:46:23.1433333+00:00

I am surprised this does not seem to be a priority for Microsoft to help keep their customers safe and under the umbrella of Microsoft services. If upgrading phones was not such a nightmare, I would have everyone using Microsoft Authenticator.
Adam Sanders 0 Reputation points

2024-04-12T15:13:32.7333333+00:00

This is absolutely nuts - how can MS have a best practice deployment of office365 which requires users to backup authenticator data to a secondary private account or iCloud?
administrator 0 Reputation points

2024-09-21T05:07:24.2766667+00:00

Glad I found this thread. Was beating my head against the wall. One more reason to bail from the MS ecosystem. We have a business account with 100's of Office365 accounts assigned/licensed to specific users. This is completely asinine!

Will be moving off MS Authenticator for all users! Like MS cares..
BENJAMIN CHAPMAN 0 Reputation points

2024-12-03T10:29:16.1933333+00:00

Just be aware that the backup and restore on the Microsoft Authenticator is fundamentally broken for IT Admin use regardless of the requirement to only backup to a personal account. The backup will only work for up to around 60 accounts before it just stops backing up. There is no fix or workaround for this, Microsoft has been aware of it for years and has done nothing. There needs to be either the ability to back up hundreds or even thousands of accounts, either automatically or a one off dump to OneDrive (business) or the ability to do a direct transfer from one device to another like Google Authenticator can do. I have been forced to maintain a second device and duplicate MFA registration on each of them rather than risk losing access to every account I have added in the past 18m or revert back to insecure SMS MFA.
Adam Smith 0 Reputation points

2024-12-03T14:00:11.9766667+00:00

It is now my opinion that this is not a bug but a feature. Microsoft designed Authenticator this way with intention and is not overlooking it.

While deploying MFA to my org, I had the realization that backing up Authenticator is not a thing for tenants because a) administrators have complete control over user MFA settings, b) end users should have at least two MFA methods, and c) the tenant should have at least two admin accounts. If an end user loses access to their MFA methods, administrators should have a procedure to reset MFA and get it set back up. This means the security of user accounts and the tenant is ultimately in the hands of the administrators where it should be.

Accepted answer

Anonymous

2023-02-21T14:03:29.46+00:00

Afraid there is no work-around. A personal account is required in order to use the backup / restore function.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/back-up-and-recover-account-credentials-in-the-authenticator-app-bb939936-7a8d-4e88-bc43-49bc1a700a40

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
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3 people found this answer helpful.
René Sinnbeck 80 Reputation points

2023-02-22T08:30:30.7466667+00:00

Does that mean that Microsoft recommends that companies use different solutions like Authy instead of Microsoft Authenticator? This seems like a huge missing feature?

Anonymous

2023-02-22T14:07:22.2+00:00

It means there currently is no work-around. A personal account is required in order to use the backup / restore function. You can provide feedback within the app.

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Anonymous

2023-08-08T14:36:08.0866667+00:00

Is there any reason for this, why does it have to be a personal account rather than a work\school account??

Marco Mohns 15 Reputation points

2024-02-20T10:11:34.8166667+00:00

since one year is over since the original post: Are there any updates to add this missing feature? forcing company users to backup their company MFAs into private accounts is not helpfull

administrator 0 Reputation points

2024-09-21T05:06:32.85+00:00

Glad I found this thread. Was beating my head against the wall. One more reason to bail from the MS ecosystem. We have a business account with 100's of Office365 accounts assigned/licensed to specific users. This is completely asinine!

Will be moving off MS Authenticator for all users! Like MS cares..
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