To do this, start the account login process by entering your username and password, and when you need to enter a one-time code from the authenticator app, look for a “Try another way” (or similar) link. If it’s an account with a major public service (e.g., Google, Facebook, Instagram) and your account is linked to your e-mail or phone number, you can easily restore access using an alternative authentication method. What you can do now is restore access to your account. If you’re not logged in elsewhere and you’ve lost the smartphone with the authenticator, done a factory reset, or had it stolen (basically, if you no longer have access to it), or if the above method didn’t work, you won’t be able to recover the authenticator. Recovering the authenticator without access to your account The option you need might simply not be operant on the device where you’re logged in. The problem is that not all services use the same settings in the Web version as in the mobile app. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t always work. In that case, simply enter the secret key or scan the QR code in the authenticator app on the new device and you’re all set. Some (but not all) services even display the secret key or QR code of the authenticator in the settings. For example, this option works with Google accounts if you’re logged in to even one of the company’s apps, such as YouTube. The item you need is usually somewhere on the Security tab. Open your account settings and reset the authenticator - that is, link it to the app on the new phone. If you’re still logged in to the account on another device, you may be in luck. Recovering the authenticator if you are logged in to the account on another device If you no longer have access to the smartphone on which the authenticator app is installed, your next steps depend on whether you’re still signed in to the account you need to log in to on another device. Recovering the authenticator without access to your smartphone But what if your phone, and along with it the authenticator app, gets lost, broken, or stolen? In that case, you have several options. One of the most convenient 2FA methods is to use an app that generates one-time codes, such as Google Authenticator and the like. With 2fa turned off, we could login to her google account on the new phone and have the fi support team activate her line there.It is vital to protect accounts with two-factor authentication: If your password gets leaked (and leaks are very common), 2FA will safeguard your accounts against hacking. Once we went through that workflow, we were in her account settings, and were able to turn off 2fa. However, it finally worked when we tried the "forgot email?" link on - they asked for her recovery email address, the name she used on her google account, and her google account password (all things which we thankfully had access to). She got a verification code at her hotmail email address but it still didn't allow her to login to her google account, it just sent her yet another one of those "we’ll send a link to sign in to your account in 48 hours" emails. However, nothing worked when we went through the account recovery process at. She still had her gmail password and access to a hotmail email address which she'd set as her recovery email address for her gmail. In our endless searching of ways to get out of this, it sounds like some people inadvertently lost their google account when they switched their phone numbers, but it's particularly dangerous for google fi users since your phone number is completely dependent on access to your google account. Especially given google seems to have force-converted her to using 2-step verification back in 2021, but didn't force her to generate backup codes when they did that. Yes, in retrospect, she should have generated backup codes for 2fa and had a physical security key and so on, but we (and I'm sure many others) were unaware of all that. Losing her phone almost resulted in her losing her google account and her phone number, each of which she's had for 15+ years. My wife's phone was stolen and therefore she couldn't receive two-factor authentication codes for signing into her google account, and therefore she couldn't switch to a new phone. We narrowly averted a disaster others have posted about here, so we wanted to post our story in case it helps others.
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