Recovery codes are your way in when you can’t use your authenticator app. You get 10 of them when you turn on two-factor authentication, and each one works once in place of the 6-digit code. They look like K7MPQ-4XRT9.
When you’d use one
- Your phone is lost, broken or wiped, and the authenticator app went with it.
- You’ve moved to a new phone and haven’t set up the authenticator app on it.
- The phone with the app is somewhere else.
To use one, tap Use a recovery code where the app asks for your 6-digit code.
Things to know
- They’re shown only once, right after you turn on two-factor authentication or get new codes. Ayyam keeps them in a form nobody can read, so we can’t show them to you again.
- Each one works once, and they don’t expire.
- They never use 0, 1, I or O, so they’re hard to misread. Capital or small letters both work, with or without the dash.
- In Settings → Security, the Recovery codes row shows how many you have left.
- You can get 10 new ones at any time. The old ones stop working.
- An account without two-factor authentication has no recovery codes.
Recovery codes also confirm it’s you when you turn off two-factor authentication or get new codes, if your account has no password because you signed up with Google or Apple.
Where to keep them
Keep them somewhere you can reach without your phone, because a lost phone is when you’ll need them. A password manager works, or a printed page at home. A screenshot in your phone’s photos doesn’t help once the phone is gone.
Anyone who has your password and one of your recovery codes can sign in to your account, so don’t share them.