I Lost My Phone With My Second Factor for Authentication. How Do I Recover?

✴️ My phoned died, and with it I lost the two-factor authentication methods I'd used it for. Here's how I recovered.

✴️ Losing my second factor
Particularly when traveling, losing your second factor for multi-factor authentication can be a problem. For SMS authentication, simply porting your phone number to a replacement phone works immediately. For Google-Authenticator-style authentication, an app like Authy lets you use multiple devices as your second factor. In all cases, it’s important to keep your account recovery and alternate verification methods up to date and ready before you need them.

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✅ Watch next ▶ What if I Forget My Passwords If I Use Two-Factor Authentication? ▶    • What if I Forget My Passwords If I Us...  

Chapters
0:00 Lost my phone with my second factor
0:23 My phone died
1:22 Two Factor Authentication
1:35 Traveling compounds the issue
3:25 Some services make it easy
3:55 Must be set up BEFORE you need it
5:20 SMS (Short Message Service)
7:50 Google Authenticator
8:00 Authy installs on multiple devices
10:20 Set it up BEFORE you need it

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