If you want to transfer Microsoft Authenticator to a new phone, follow this step by step guide. After migrating all saved credentials to a new phone, some websites might ask you to verify the new phone with new codes. You can use these instructions to move from Android to iOS or vice versa.
Microsoft Authenticator is a code generator application available for Android and iOS. If you enable and use two-factor authentication on various sites, you can make use of the Microsoft Authenticator to generate codes. However, let’s assume that you have lost your phone that had Microsoft Authenticator, and now you want to transfer all data from that lost or stolen phone to a new one. In this case, you can take the help of this tutorial.
Before getting started, you should know that you must have enabled Cloud backup earlier to move from a stolen or lost phone to a new one. Otherwise, these steps won’t help. If you have both mobiles in front of you, you can keep following this guide.
In this article, we have included screenshots indicating that we are moving from an Android mobile to iOS. However, you can follow the same steps to move from iOS to Android as well.
How to move Microsoft Authenticator to a new Phone
To set up Microsoft Authenticator on a new phone, follow these steps-
- Open the Microsoft Authenticator app on old mobile.
- Tap on the three-dotted icon and go to Settings.
- Toggle Cloud backup or iCloud backup option.
- Add a recovery account.
- Open the Microsoft Authenticator app on the new mobile.
- Tap on the BEGIN RECOVERY button.
- Enter the credentials of the recovery account.
- Reverify accounts to start using them.
To get started, you need to turn on Cloud backup in the Microsoft Authenticator app. To do so, you need to open the Microsoft Authenticator app on your mobile, tap on the three-dotted icon, and select the Settings option. Now, you need to toggle the Cloud backup option.
Note: If you are using an iOS mobile, you can see iCloud backup instead of Cloud backup.
Now, you need to add a recovery account. You can use your personal email address as a recovery account.
Once you are done with that, you need to open the Microsoft Authenticator app on the new mobile. After opening, you will find an option called BEGIN RECOVERY.
Tap on it and add the email address you used on the old phone. If you add that successfully, you can find all the saved accounts on your new phone.
Important notes
- Microsoft Authenticator might ask you to reverify some accounts after moving to a new mobile. That happens because of security reasons.
- While verifying accounts, you can see different codes on new and old mobiles. It is mandatory to use the codes from your new mobile.
- Don’t forget to remove all accounts from the Microsoft Authenticator app after moving to the new phone.
Read: How to use and add Work/School accounts to Microsoft Authenticator app.
