A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.

This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where it
had been local before.

Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
being converted to a voice message.
So no authenticating PIN.

I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact, but
without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed 30 day
wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
authentication.

I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
these days.

It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to recognise
that a phone number is a land line without something else as 2FA?

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
> laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.
>
> This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where it
> had been local before.
>
> Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
> Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
> Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
> It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
> being converted to a voice message.
> So no authenticating PIN.
>
> I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact, but
> without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed 30 day
> wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
> authentication.
>
> I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
> refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
> these days.
>
> It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to recognise
> that a phone number is a land line without something else as 2FA?

How did they manage to set up the landline as 2FA if it doesn't work? As
part of enrolling a new 2FA mechanism is always a confirmation that it
works.

On Thu, 10 Aug 2023 17:38:31 +0000, Chris wrote:

> David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
>> laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.
>>
>> This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where
>> it had been local before.
>>
>> Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
>> Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
>> Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
>> It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
>> being converted to a voice message.
>> So no authenticating PIN.
>>
>> I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact,
>> but without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed
>> 30 day wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
>> authentication.
>>
>> I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
>> refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
>> these days.
>>
>> It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to
>> recognise that a phone number is a land line without something else as
>> 2FA?
>
> How did they manage to set up the landline as 2FA if it doesn't work? As
> part of enrolling a new 2FA mechanism is always a confirmation that it
> works.

I am assuming that the land line has been associated with the Hotmail
account for some time.
My friend is at the best an unreliable witness so they may have given
their land line number when creating the Microsoft Account, of course.

Even so, if they did supply the phone number when asked then it obviously
could not be validated.

Which would leave the account with no means of validation.

In which case should set up of a new Microsoft Account proceed without a
proven means of validation?

Whatever happened, there is certainly a hole in the bucket.

Cheers

Dave R

--
Dell Latitude 7280 with Full HD and Thunderbolt (woo hoo)

David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Aug 2023 17:38:31 +0000, Chris wrote:
>
>> David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>> A friend (who I usually support on IT matters) recently bought a new
>>> laptop and got impatient and set it up themselves.
>>>
>>> This included using their Hotmail account as a Microsoft account where
>>> it had been local before.
>>>
>>> Microsoft has a record of a landline as the phone number.
>>> Any attempt to make any changes requires 2FA.
>>> Selecting the land line number doesn't work.
>>> It appears that M$ may be trying to send a text but that if so it isn't
>>> being converted to a voice message.
>>> So no authenticating PIN.
>>>
>>> I've nominated a Gmail account as the alternative method of contact,
>>> but without 2FA (and there's a hole in my bucket) there is an imposed
>>> 30 day wait before any changes can be actioned using the new method of
>>> authentication.
>>>
>>> I should mention that my friend is a Luddite (about certain things) and
>>> refuses to have a mobile phone, which I assume M$ assume everyone has
>>> these days.
>>>
>>> It is a bit late now, but does anyone know of a way to get M$ to
>>> recognise that a phone number is a land line without something else as
>>> 2FA?
>>
>> How did they manage to set up the landline as 2FA if it doesn't work? As
>> part of enrolling a new 2FA mechanism is always a confirmation that it
>> works.
>
> I am assuming that the land line has been associated with the Hotmail
> account for some time.

That may be so but to be set up with 2FA it would need to have been
confirmed to work.

> My friend is at the best an unreliable witness so they may have given
> their land line number when creating the Microsoft Account, of course.
>
> Even so, if they did supply the phone number when asked then it obviously
> could not be validated.
>
> Which would leave the account with no means of validation.
>
> In which case should set up of a new Microsoft Account proceed without a
> proven means of validation?

No. It would fail.

> Whatever happened, there is certainly a hole in the bucket.

Agreed.