I have talked about the ways to protect yourself from having your accounts taken over before but this month I want to take it further and tell you how to ensure you don’t lose any account access when you get a new phone.
Recently I ran into a customer of mine that just got a new phone and he was not able to get into his business email account with Microsoft. He knew what the password was but since he had a different phone his Microsoft Authenticator app didn’t work for this account. This also happened to me about six months ago when I got a new phone except I was locked out of a few accounts for some companies that I manage email.
The problem is that you can’t automatically move your authenticator entries to a new phone. Microsoft says all you need to do is back up your authenticator into your Microsoft account and then restore it onto your new phone. This is technically true but only works for entries that are connected to your personal Microsoft account. Not for other accounts like your work or business email.
Since this was my customer’s business account the entry was not backed up by his personal account and he was locked out. Luckily, he knew his password, and he was able to contact Microsoft since he is a paying customer, and they helped him reset his authenticator for his business email. He works for himself and is the admin on his account so reaching out to his company admin was not an option. When this happened to me, I was also able to get my authenticator entries back because I set up every option available when I initially set up each account in my authenticator. So, I was able to receive text messages or codes to alternate email addresses.
Why am I telling you this? The simple fact that I didn’t stop with just the authenticator app and decided to also set up texting or alternate email options for the accounts I manage made it easier for me to get back into those accounts after getting a new phone.
This is an option when initially setting up a new account, but it is also available in your Microsoft account so you can add other options at any time. This is also good if you initially set up your account with an old phone number or email that you no longer have access to because you can login to your account and update with the new phone number or email account. Do these things now instead of waiting until you have a new device and it is too late.
If you are not sure how to update this information or even how to set up an authenticator I can help with this also.
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