Note
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Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
Users in Microsoft Entra ID have two distinct sets of contact information:
- Public profile contact information, which is managed in the user profile and visible to members of your organization. For users synced from on-premises Active Directory, this information is managed in on-premises Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services.
- Authentication methods, which are always kept private and only used for authentication, including multifactor authentication. Administrators can manage these methods in a user's authentication method blade and users can manage their methods in Security Info page of MyAccount.
When managing Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication methods for your users, Authentication administrators can:
- Add authentication methods for a specific user, including phone numbers used for MFA.
- Reset a user's password.
- Require a user to re-register for MFA.
- Revoke existing MFA sessions.
- Delete a user's existing app passwords
Note
The screenshots in this topic show how to manage user authentication methods by using an updated experience in the Microsoft Entra admin center. There's also a legacy experience, and admins can toggle between the two using a banner in the admin center. The modern experience has full parity with the legacy experience, and it manages modern methods like Temporary Access Pass, passkeys, and other settings. The legacy experience in the Microsoft Entra admin center retired on Sept. 30, 2025. There's no action required by organizations before the retirement.
Prerequisites
Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication, which is enabled by default.
Add or change authentication methods for a user
You can add or change authentication methods for a user by using the Microsoft Entra admin center or Microsoft Graph PowerShell. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, the legacy method for managing user authentication methods retires after Sept. 30, 2025.
Note
For security reasons, public user contact information fields shouldn't be used to perform MFA. Instead, users should populate their authentication method numbers to be used for MFA.
To add or change authentication methods for a user in the Microsoft Entra admin center:
- Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least an Authentication Administrator.
- Browse to Entra ID > Users.
- Choose the user for whom you wish to add or change an authentication method and select Authentication methods.
- At the top of the window, select + Add authentication method.
- Select a method (phone number or email). Email may be used for self-password reset but not authentication. When adding a phone number, select a phone type and enter phone number with valid format (such as
+1 4255551234). - Select Add.
- Select a method (phone number or email). Email may be used for self-password reset but not authentication. When adding a phone number, select a phone type and enter phone number with valid format (such as
Users can add or edit their own authentication methods in My Sign Ins | Security info. For example, to change the phone number, select Phone number and tap Change.
Manage methods using PowerShell
Install the Microsoft.Graph.Identity.Signins PowerShell module using the following commands.
Install-module Microsoft.Graph.Identity.Signins
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "User.Read.all","UserAuthenticationMethod.Read.All","UserAuthenticationMethod.ReadWrite.All"
Select-MgProfile -Name beta
List phone based authentication methods for a specific user.
Get-MgUserAuthenticationPhoneMethod -UserId [email protected]
Create a mobile phone authentication method for a specific user.
New-MgUserAuthenticationPhoneMethod -UserId [email protected] -phoneType "mobile" -phoneNumber "+1 7748933135"
Remove a specific phone method for a user
Remove-MgUserAuthenticationPhoneMethod -UserId [email protected] -PhoneAuthenticationMethodId 00aa00aa-bb11-cc22-dd33-44ee44ee44ee
Authentication methods can also be managed using Microsoft Graph APIs. For more information, see Authentication and authorization basics.
Manage user authentication options
Authentication Administrators can require other users to reset their password, re-register for MFA, or revoke existing MFA sessions from their user object. Users can't update their own user object. To change or reset their own security methods, users can go to Security info, or go to self-service password reset to reset their password. To manage other user's settings, complete the following steps:
Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least an Authentication Administrator.
Browse to Entra ID > Users.
Choose the user you wish to perform an action on and select Authentication methods. At the top of the window, then choose one of the following options for the user:
- Reset password resets the user's password and assigns a temporary password that must be changed on the next sign-in.
- Require re-register MFA deactivates the user's hardware OATH tokens and deletes the following authentication methods from this user: phone numbers, Microsoft Authenticator apps and software OATH tokens. If needed, the user is requested to set up a new MFA authentication method the next time they sign in.
- Revoke MFA sessions clears the user's remembered MFA sessions and requires them to perform MFA the next time it's required by the policy on the device.
Delete users' existing app passwords
For users that have defined app passwords, administrators can also choose to delete these passwords, causing legacy authentication to fail in those applications. These actions may be necessary if you need to provide assistance to a user, or need to reset their authentication methods. Non-browser apps that were associated with these app passwords stop working until a new app password is created.
To delete a user's app passwords, complete the following steps:
Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least an Authentication Administrator.
Browse to Entra ID > Users.
Select Multifactor authentication. You may need to scroll to the right to see this menu option. Select the example screenshot below to see the full window and menu location:
Check the box next to the user or users that you wish to manage. A list of quick step options appears on the right.
Select Manage user settings, then check the box for Delete all existing app passwords generated by the selected users, as shown in the following example:
Select save, then close.
