Locked out of my small business account

Question

Hey there

So, tldr, I dropped my phone with the MS Authenticator and am unable to login to my personal domain account.

Since I am a one person business there isn't any additional account.

I am able to change the password as it gives me alternative options on how to change it.

But when I need to sign in it constantly asks me for the authenticator code or a code from the authenticator app.

So, it's just a loop and does not give me any alternatives.

When I try to contact/open a ticket for small business with Microsoft it asks "to login first", yeaah I would love to but...

Anyone here who can point me in the right direction to have this issue fixed and actually be able to contact someone for a reset?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hello @A Claeys ,
Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform. Based on your description, I understand that you're unable to log into your personal domain account because it is connected to Microsoft authentication, which is requesting a code. However, you can't access the authentication app because it requires a code sent to your email, creating a circular issue.

In this situation, there are two possible solutions:

1. If you have another Global Admin in your tenant.
2. If you are the only Global Admin in your tenant.

If you have another Global admin of your tenant, you can ask them to make change in Entra ID for your account so that you can re-register for MFA in authenticator app.To perform this, you can ask another Global admin to follow below steps,

1.Admin has to login to Azure portal and access Azure active directory.

2.Once done they have to go to users' blade on the left.

3.Click on the user account which has been locked out.

4.Click on Authentication methods and click on “Require re-register multifactor authentication”.

Now when you try to login to Azure services it will prompt you to register for MFA again.

If you are the only global admin on the account and are blocked entirely, you can reach out to our support team. You can look into below article to get support numbers depending on your country.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/global-customer-service-phone-numbers-c0389ade-5640-e588-8b0e-28de8afeb3f2

 or creating a ticket through a different account:  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/get-help-support?view=o365-worldwide#phone-support

While creating a ticket with Microsoft support team. Give them the tenant ID which is locked out in your description. Tell them that no admin account has access anymore and your partners also have no access anymore.

Once you create a ticket with support team you will have to work with our data protection team. You will have to first prove your identity against your tenant for security purpose. Post that this team will help you with help you in getting access to your tenant or unlock your account depending on your scenario.

Also, for the future, you can create an emergency access account (break glass) in Azure AD. This account will help prevent being accidentally locked out of your Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) organization because you can't sign in for any reason.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/roles/security-emergency-access

I hope this clarifies things. Please contact us if you have any additional questions.

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