You for sure have heard about two-factor authentication or 2FA, or maybe some service like Gmail or Facebook advised you to use 2FA for your account so you can minimize the risk of being hacked.
What is a 2FA?
The two-factor authentication(2FA) is an extra layer of security for your account, in order to access your account, apart from entering your password and email you will also need to introduce another factor of authentication, in other words, with 2FA enabled you won’t be able to log in into your accounts without a specific numerical code.
What are the Google Authenticator issues?
Google Authenticator can be a good choice for you in order to secure your accounts with two-factor authentication, as it works on all devices and can be used absolutely for free. However, one of the main issues that can completely lock you out of your accounts is that Google Authenticator doesn’t support any backup option. In case you will lose your device you won’t be able to restore your 2FA accounts from Google Authenticator, and if you won’t save the backup codes (that nobody does), you will get locked out of your accounts. More than this, in order to transfer your accounts to a new device you will need to complete to sync the accounts manually, by scanning the QR code from Google Authenticator on your old device, with Google Authenticator on your new device.
What you can do to avoid these issues?
To avoid these issues in the future, you can use Authenticator App by 2Stable. Authenticator App by 2Stable is a secure 2FA authentication app that generates, stores and manages two-factor authentication codes for the most popular websites. It works in the same way as Google Authenticator but is more feature-rich, specifically you can back up your accounts and securely restore them in case you lose your device or you can sync your accounts to a new device. Additionally, you can easily transfer all your accounts from Google Authenticator into Authenticator App by 2Stable by scanning a QR code. No matter how many accounts you have stored in your Google Authenticator, you can seamlessly move them to Authenticator by 2Stable by following the steps below.
How to transfer your accounts from Google Authenticator?
First of all, you need to download the Authenticator App by 2Stable on your device. Next, follow these steps on Authenticator App by 2Stable:
- Open Authenticator by 2Stable and press on +.
- Select Google Authenticator from Other Options.
Then, you need to export the accounts from Google Authenticator by following these steps:
- Open Google Authenticator.
- Tap the overflow button in the upper-right corner.
- Find and tap on Export accounts.
- Select the accounts you want to export, and tap on Export, bottom-right corner.
Following, you have two possibilities to scan the Export QR Code from Google, by pressing on + and scanning the QR code with Authenticator App by 2Stable if you have two or more devices, or by taking a screenshot if you have only one device.
If you want to scan the Export QR Code from Google with the same device, first, make sure to save the screenshot into Files, after, follow these steps:
- Open 2Stable Authenticator.
- Tap on + and choose Files.
- Select the screenshot with Export QR Code from Google.
Once you will scan or import the Export QR Code from Google Authenticator all your accounts will appear automatically in Authenticator by 2Stable. Don’t forget to enable the Sync & Backup in 2Stable Authenticator to be sure that your accounts are fully protected.
If you want to learn more about Authenticator App by 2Stable you can find all the necessary info here: https://authenticator.2stable.com
