The Information Technology Services (ITS) Department has provided advanced instructions for managing multi-factor authentication (MFA) on your Detroit Mercy email account prior to traveling abroad.
If you’re planning on leaving the country or if you are traveling to the United States from abroad, you may need to take steps to ensure that your MFA will work properly after your journey. To make sure your work won’t be disrupted while you are traveling, you should check whether your MFA method is dependent on phone or internet signal and make other arrangements, if necessary.
Before you travel
To check which MFA methods are associated with your account, go to “My Sign Ins,” log in with your Detroit Mercy email credentials and complete your MFA. From there, you will be able to add backup methods, remove methods you no longer use and select your default way to sign in with MFA. Please see the “Managing your MFA” setup page for detailed instructions.
To ensure you don’t lose access to your account after your journey, you will need to make sure you have at least one way of getting into your account that doesn’t rely on a phone signal. Once you have arrived, you can log into “My Sign Ins” and add any further methods you’d like to use, such as a local mobile or landline phone. The main method of authenticating without a phone signal or internet connection is the Microsoft Authenticator app. Once you have set up your app, you can use a six digit code to log in without incurring any charges for using your phone abroad.
Microsoft Authenticator
The Microsoft Authenticator app can be used for two different types of MFA: notifications sent to your phone or time-based passwords. If you use the time-based password option, the Microsoft Authenticator won’t use the phone network or internet on your phone. Notification MFA does require a phone or internet signal to work, so you may not wish to use this option unless you have a local SIM card and data plan.
When adding the Microsoft Authenticator as an MFA method in “My Sign Ins,” it will be automatically set up to use notifications, so make sure that you have a Wi-Fi connection if you do not want to use your phone’s data. Once you have finished setting up the app, you should check that your preferred MFA method is set as the default sign-in option within the “Security Info” section of “My Sign Ins.”