Two-factor authentication (2FA) is likely one of the finest and best methods to maintain your on-line accounts safe. It works by issuing an authentication code in your cellphone when any person tries to entry the account; if that individual doesn’t have the code, they (otherwise you) don’t get in. By utilizing a 2FA app, similar to Google Authenticator or Authy, you may stop any person from accessing your knowledge by getting your password. (You can have a code texted to you, however that’s thought-about far much less safe because of the rise of so-called SIM hacking.)

There is, after all, a catch. Because 2FA makes use of a key particular to your cellphone, when you lose or break your cellphone, you may’t merely reinstall the app in your new cellphone and go on from there. You have to switch the important thing code for that cellphone in addition to the app itself.

Different authentication apps deal with this in numerous methods. In this text, I’m going to have a look at Google Authenticator, together with the simplest solution to switch the app to a brand new cellphone when you do have entry to the previous one, and how one can put together for a potential downside (like a damaged cellphone).

Google Authenticator allows you to set up 2FA through the use of your cellphone to scan a QR code generated by the app on a separate system or by getting into a key code. It’s a comparatively straightforward course of — except you discover you need to transfer the app to a brand new cellphone.

Because 2FA makes use of safety keys which might be particular to every piece of {hardware}, you may’t merely reinstall Google Authenticator in your new cellphone and use it to log in. Instead, you need to switch the keys to your new app.

The simplest way, particularly when you use 2FA with a number of apps, is to make use of the Authenticator app’s devoted switch characteristic to maneuver your keys from one cellphone to the opposite. However, there are two assumptions right here: first, that you’ve got entry to each the previous and new cellphone, and second, that you’ve got Android gadgets. If both of those assumptions doesn’t work to your state of affairs, there are different strategies you should utilize, which we’ll cowl subsequent. But first, the simple technique.

Transfer your Authenticator keys through Android

If you’ve acquired two Android telephones, you may switch your accounts to a brand new cellphone by exporting them through a QR code generated by the Authenticator app.

• Install Google Authenticator in your new cellphone.
• Tap “Get started.”
• Tap “Scan a QR code.” You’ll get a grid and directions to “Place QR code within red lines.”
• Open Google Authenticator in your older cellphone.
• Tap on the three dots on the highest proper of the display screen and choose “Transfer accounts”
• Select “Export accounts.” You could also be requested to confirm your identification through a fingerprint, password, or one other technique.
• Uncheck which accounts you don’t wish to export. Tap “Next.”
• You’ll be proven a QR code. Center it within the grid in your new cellphone.
• You ought to see the imported app now listed in your Google Authenticator app within the new cellphone. (Note: the app will not be deleted out of your previous cellphone.)

Alternative technique #1: Use your backup codes

When you first arrange Google Authenticator, chances are you’ll be given a set of backup codes and requested to print them out or in any other case save them. And you positively do wish to save them; print them out and put them someplace protected or create a PDF and reserve it the place no one else can entry it. If your cellphone goes south, these codes can be a great way to reestablish authentication in your new cellphone — assuming, after all, you haven’t misplaced the codes.

This can be the best way to reestablish your keys on a brand new iPhone.

If you missed that step in the course of the set up, you will get these backup codes anyway. For that, you need to go into your Google account after which comply with these steps:

• Click on “Security” within the left-hand column.
• Scroll right down to and choose “2-Step Verification.” You’ll most likely must enter your password.
• Scroll right down to “Backup Codes” and click on on “Show Codes.”

• You’ll get an inventory of 10 codes. Each code can be utilized as soon as; when you use all of them, you will get extra by clicking on “Show Codes” after which on “Get New Codes.”

Alternative technique #2: Take a screenshot of the barcode

One solution to create a backup in case you lose your cellphone is to take and save a screenshot of the barcode that’s created for every 2FA-secured app. If you’ve mislaid your backup codes, however you’ve saved a screenshot of the QR barcode that you simply initially used to create your app’s authentication, you should utilize that screenshot to ascertain your credentials on a brand new cellphone.

Just throw the screenshot up in your pc, set up Google Authenticator in your new cellphone, and use the plus signal on the app to scan the barcode. (You may also enter the setup key code if that’s what you saved.) Do this for every of your apps, and also you’ll be all set.

Update October twelfth, 2021, 11:20AM ET: This article was initially revealed on September 2nd, 2020; the instructions for transferring between Android telephones have been up to date.