Is Google Authenticator Safe? How to Avoid Major Headaches

Google Authenticator has become the standard for keeping your accounts secure. But what if your phone breaks or gets stolen?

This guy lost all of his 2FA accounts when his phone went on the fritz. Turns out Google in particular does not make it easy to get back on track if this happens. If you install Google Authenticator on a new secondary device, your existing 2FA keys will *not* be copied over.

Fortunately, there are a couple of simple things you can do to avoid the headache he went through:

• Use Authy instead. Authy works anywhere Authenticator is accepted and allows you to have multiple installations of its app on as many phones and PCs as you like.
• If you’d prefer to use Authenticator, you can print out the backup codes that exchanges give you when you first enable 2FA. The backup code can always be used if something happens to your phone. If you already enabled 2FA without writing down the backup code, just disable and re-enable it to get the code.

Google Authenticator can also break down if you move across different time zones or if your phone’s time gets out of sync. Here’s what to do if your 2FA codes suddenly stop working.

If you have tips on how to stay secure in the crypto world, let us know!