Two-factor authentication secures your accounts with code in addition to your password. You can’t get in without the code sent to your phone. But what happens if you lose or reset your phone? If you don’t plan your recovery method ahead of time, you could permanently lose access to your accounts.
Here’s what you should do right now to make sure you don’t get locked out in the future.
Print Your Backup Codes and Store Them Securely
Here’s the most important thing you should do: Print out the “backup codes” for all your accounts and store them somewhere safe. These codes will allow you to regain access to your account if you ever lose your two-factor authentication method in the future. Keep them in a secure location.
When you set up two-factor authentication for an account, that website will often ask you to print out backup codes to ensure you’ll never lose access. If you didn’t print out any backup codes when setting up two-step authentication, you should do so now, while you still have access to the account.
For a Google account, these backup codes only work once each, ensuring that anyone who intercepts the code can’t log into your account with it afterwards. If you run out of codes, be sure to generate some more. You can print backup codes for your Google account from the two-step verification settings page. If you’ve set up two-factor authentication for any other websites, sign into your account on the website and look for information about backup codes under your two-factor authentication settings.
Use Authy (or Back Up Your Two-Factor Data)
When it comes to two-factor authentication, we prefer the Authy app to Google Authenticator or SMS. Authy allows you to sync your two-factor tokens between your devices. When you get a new phone, you can easily move your data to it. Or, you could share the data between a phone and tablet. Authy is compatible with Google Authenticator and works anywhere you’d use Google Authenticator, too.
Despite these sync features, Authy is still secure, as long as you use it properly. It can back up your tokens online so you don’t lose them, but these backups are…
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