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Losing your 2FA Authetication App sucks

reKon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,701
I'm going through the process of trying to recovery all my accounts and its been sort of a hassle. I had written down all my secret one time passwords/codes, but this has failed me for my Nintendo account and Coinbase account. I'm assuming that at some point, they were all automatically reset? I don't even recall this though.

If I was using Google Authenticator before and switched to Microsoft, my secret pass code should work on both right? I'm wondering if this was the issue the entire time because Nintendo says to specifically use Google Authenticator. After resetting my phone, I decide I didn't want to deal with Google's back up-less solution and I heard of a lot of issues with Authy, so went with Microsoft's. So far it blows Google's app out of the water.

Just a heads up that if you're in North America, Nintendo is pretty good about the recovery process so they were able to get 2FA turned off for me.
 
theSoularian

theSoularian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,247
I've been using Authy and haven't had any issues — I have it on my Android phone and ipad. Google Authenticator doesn't backup or sync across devices (like Authy does) so if you get or switch to a new device, you pretty much have start all over.
 

XSystem

Member
Apr 1, 2019
270
reKon said:
If I was using Google Authenticator before and switched to Microsoft, my secret pass code should work on both right?
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Google Authenticator is simply an implementation of the OATH TOTP standard. Whenever a service asks you to use Google Authenticator you don't actually have to use Google Authenticator, but simply an app (or physical device) that implements this standard. If you wrote down the TOTP secret and reentered it later in a different app that also supports OATH TOTP, there shouldn't be an issue.

But yeah, backups can be a hassle with 2FA. Since I use a YubiKey as a 2FA / FIDO2 device, loosing my second factor is as simple as loosing this small USB device. That's why I keep physical printouts of the TOTP secrets in a secure location, just in case.
 
OP
OP

reKon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,701
XSystem said:
Google Authenticator is simply an implementation of the OATH TOTP standard. Whenever a service asks you to use Google Authenticator you don't actually have to use Google Authenticator, but simply an app (or physical device) that implements this standard. If you wrote down the TOTP secret and reentered it later in a different app that also supports OATH TOTP, there shouldn't be an issue.

But yeah, backups can be a hassle with 2FA. Since I use a YubiKey as a 2FA / FIDO2 device, loosing my second factor is as simple as loosing this small USB device. That's why I keep physical printouts of the TOTP secrets in a secure location, just in case.
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Click to shrink...

OK, thanks for clarifying
 
elenarie

elenarie

Game Developer
Verified
Jun 10, 2018
9,792
Microsoft's Authenticator has a backup and restore feature, btw. You can easily move everything to a new phone. :)
 
criteriondog

criteriondog

I like the chili style
Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,064
Google Authenticator doesn't have a backup/cloud sync. I learned this the hard way.
 
OP
OP

reKon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,701
Yeah, I see here many are using Authy with no issues. I only went with Microsoft because of the higher rating on the Play Store and I saw that there latest update was the cloud back up feature a week ago (which makes me wonder - why was it so high in the first place if it DIDN'T have this feature).

Anyways, I'm happy with it so far and almost all set up.
 

Deleted member 9932

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,711
How has it failed you? If you have the keys, there is no issue.
BTW, Coinbase migrated from Authy to Google Ath because of security issues (related with the authy tokens).
 
Mortemis

Mortemis

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,410
Here to echo how good Authy is.

It also has an Apple Watch app which makes it super easy to get to.
 
Auron Kale

Auron Kale

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,349
San Francisco Bay Area (East Bay)
I went through this process myself fairly recently (going through Amazon's recovery process was a pain unto itself 😑) and am using Google but have also recently downloaded Microsoft due to work moving from Okta to Microsoft.

Since Microsoft has a backup feature, how easy is it to migrate over from Google? I'd rather have everything in 1 place rather than split across 2 different apps.
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,954
Authy is what I use. Syncs with my iPad too, so there are a couple of failsafes in place.
 
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