Back Up and Recover Account Info in the Authenticator App ❤️

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This article applies to iOS devices running version 5.7.0 and Android devices running version 6.6.0 and later.

The Microsoft Authenticator app backs up your account credentials and related app settings to the cloud. Such as the order of your accounts. You can then use the app to recover your information on a new device, potentially avoiding getting locked out or having to recreate accounts.

Each backup storage location requires you to have one personal Microsoft account, and iOS requires an iCloud account. You can have multiple accounts stored in that single location. For example, you can have a personal account, a work or school account, and a personal, non-Microsoft account like Facebook, Google, and so on.

Important: Only your personal, non-Microsoft account credentials are saved. This includes your username and the account verification code needed to prove your identity. We don’t keep any other information about your accounts, like emails or files. We also don’t link or share your accounts with any other product or service or use them for anything else. Your IT administrator doesn’t know anything about these accounts.

Back up your account credentials

Before you can prove your qualifications, you must:

Turn on cloud backup for iOS devices

Choose Settings, then Backup, and then turn on iCloud backup on your iOS device. Your login information is saved in your iCloud account.
Turn on cloud backup for iOS devices

Turn on cloud backup for Android devices

Choose Settings, then Backup, and then turn on Cloud backup on your Android device. Your login information is saved in your cloud account.

Turn on cloud backup for Android devices

Recover your account credentials on your new device

You can get your account’s login information from your cloud account. But first, you must ensure that the account you’re trying to get doesn’t already exist in the Authenticator app.

For example, if you’re trying to recover your personal Microsoft account. You must ensure that you haven’t already set up a personal Microsoft account in the authenticator app.

This check is essential so we don’t accidentally erase or overwrite an existing account.

To recover your information

  • Open the Authenticator app on your phone and choose “Begin recovery.”

To recover your information

  • Sign in to your recovery account with the Microsoft account you used when you made the backup. Your account’s login information is sent to the new device.

After you finish your recovery. You might notice that your personal Microsoft account verification codes in the Authenticator app are different on your old and new phones.

Each device has its unique credential, so the codes are different. However, both codes are valid and can use to sign in with each phone.

Recover accounts requiring more verification

If you use push notifications on your personal, work, or school account. You’ll get a message on your screen telling you that you need to provide more proof before getting your information back.

Because push notifications require a credential tied to your device and never sent over the network.You must prove your identity before the credential creates on your device.

For personal Microsoft accounts, you can show that you are who you say you are by entering your password and a second email address or phone number. For accounts at work or school, you must scan a QR code your account provider gives you.

To provide more verification for personal accounts

  • Tap the account you want to recover on the Accounts screen of the Authenticator app to see it in full-screen mode.

To provide more verification for personal accounts

  • Tap the tile for the account you want to recover, and tap the “Sign in to recover” button. Enter your password and confirm your email address or phone number as an extra security measure.

To provide more verification for personal account

To provide more verification for work or school accounts

  • Tap the account you want to recover on the Accounts screen of the Authenticator app to see it in full-screen mode.

To provide more verification for personal accounts

  • To fully recover, tap the option to scan a QR code when the screen is full.

To provide more verification

Notes: 

  • If your admin has turned on security info.See Get started with the Authenticator app or Set up security info to use an authenticator app for more information about QR codes and how to get one.
  • If you’re setting up the Authenticator app for the first time. You might get a message asking if you want to give the app access to your camera (iOS) or if you want to give the app permission to take pictures and record video (Android).
  • Allow the authenticator app to use your camera so it can take a picture of the QR code.
  • If you don’t let the camera work, you can still set up the authenticator app. But you’ll have to enter the code information by hand.
  • See Manually add an account to the app for information on how to add the code by hand.

Troubleshoot backup and recovery problems

There are a few reasons you might not be able to use your backup.

Symptom Suggestion
Changing operating systems For iOS, your backup is kept in iCloud, and for Android, it is kept in Microsoft’s cloud storage service. This means that if you switch between Android and iOS devices, you won’t be able to use your backup. If you switch, you’ll have to set up your accounts repeatedly in the Authenticator app.
Network problems If you’re having problems with the network, ensure you’re connect to it and sign in to your account.
Account problems If you’re having trouble with your account, make sure that you’re signed in correctly. For iOS, this means that you must sign into iCloud with the same Apple ID as your iPhone.
Accidental deletion It’s possible that you deleted your backup account from your old device or while managing your cloud storage account. In this case, you must manually make a new account within the app.
Existing Authenticator app accounts If you’ve already set up accounts in the Authenticator app, it won’t be able to restore your backed-up accounts. By stopping recovery, you ca make sure that your account information isn’t replaced with old information. Before you can get back to your backup, you must remove any account information from the accounts you already have set up in your Authenticator app.

 

Now that you have back up and restore your account credentials on your new device, you can continue to use the Authenticator app to prove who you are. For more information, see How to use the Microsoft Authenticator app to sign in to your accounts.

In Conclusion

In this article, I explain everything you need to know about the Authenticator app and how to back up and recover account information. Still, if you have any problems with this site, you can contact us or check out our site for more posts like this one.

FAQs

How do I backup and restore my Authenticator?

Open the Authenticator app on your phone and choose “Begin recovery.” Sign in to your recovery account with the Microsoft account you used when you made the backup. Your account’s login information is sent to the new device.

If you lose your Google Authenticator codes, please contact our support team by sending a selfie photo as soon as possible. This will prove that you are the owner of the account.
You can cancel your backup codes and get new ones if you lose them. Go to the part of your Google Account called “2-Step Verification.” Choose to display codes. Click on Get new codes.
If you didn’t print out those codes, the first thing you’ll need to do after setting up 2FA is to get them. To do that, you need to sign in to your Google account and then go to the Google 2FA site, where you’ll ask to sign in again. After you’ve successfully log in, you’ll see a line for Backup codes.
Since you lost your device with the Authenticator App, you can try unregistering your old device or if you have other admins in your tenant, you can have them re-register for MFA to see if that fixes the problem.
When you set up two-factor authentication on more than one device for a single Instagram account, the authentication app on each device will give you a 6-digit login code. Remember that two-factor authentication must set up on one device first using an authentication app before other devices can add.
You would have two choices if you delete the Google Authenticator app from your old phone before moving the accounts to your new phone. Retrieve using the backup codes you were given when you set up your Google Authenticator account. If you don’t have these codes, you’ll have to manually add each account to your new phone.

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