Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?
As we know, google has been effective at automating a lot of their systems, to the point where it can feel like there isn't any help available from a human. So what is supposed to be the plan when this type of situation happens? Basically I have a situation that after my phone was stolen, I can't get into any of my accounts that are either connected to google, or connected to the phone via 2FA. This has made it complicated/impossible not only to get info about my phone, but also my banking, email, drive, etc. Of course they offer you "multiple options" to recover an account, but not if you forgot your old email's password. At that point the options you get are, a) Use old phone (obviously the phone is long gone) b) Use current phone (the phone is gone) c) Use old email (I haven't used it in like 12 years) Does anyone know if their is a process to appeal 2FA or anything to deal with this type of situation? I'd imagine that this has happened to people many many times, and given how phones and particularly, google auth have become so critical to accomplishing essential tasks within society, there must be some way. Or maybe it's just like, once your phone is gone, you are completely over with society? If anyone has any experience with this or inside knowledge please share it! I'm sure people here have heard of this, and maybe experienced it themselves. Is there a secret option that exists that allows us to use passwords instead of rigamarole? I would love an account that let me simply log in with a password, like google used to be.
Discussion Highlights (20 comments)
runjake
The only secret option I know of is to have a popular social media account and complain online. Other than that, I copy/pasted your post into Claude and it had some good ideas.
phildougherty
need to save your recovery keys (text file) before you lost the phone
mococa
There's no way, no human contact. That's why I de-googled myself.
sampullman
If you don't have the authenticator backup codes and you didn't turn on cloud sync in the app, you might be out of luck. You can get a replacement SIM though and use it with a new phone, so the phone number recovery option should work.
Apreche
You were supposed to save your backup codes.
ticulatedspline
Isn't there an SMS option? buy a new phone and have them send you an OTP via SMS. > once you're phone is gone, you are completely over with society? yes, I'm waiting for the Black-Mirror episode where someone drops their phone and basically dies, can't contact anyone, can't unlock or start their car, can't get an uber, can't pay for anything, can't navigate without gps, can't log into anything etc.
SAI_Peregrinus
The same way you recover any other deleted data for which you didn't make a backup: you don't. You eat the loss & make new accounts. Then you remember to make and test backups for the future. Even if they had customer support, if that customer support had a backdoor to unlock your account it would be regularly used by malicious parties to steal people's accounts & data.
wccrawford
Everything you listed, plus a recovery email option, plus backup codes, plus SMS. That's already a lot and anything easier would allow people to just take over accounts that they don't have a right to.
SoftTalker
You're going to have more success working with the providers of the other accounts and services rather than Google. That means a lot more legwork on your part but banks and other online services all have processes to deal with lost passwords and 2FA devices. In some cases you may have to physically go somewhere with ID and other documents. Consider it a learning experience.
pards
Going forward, consider using an authenticator that securely syncs across multiple devices to remove the single point of failure risk. I use Proton Authenticator now [0] Authy used to do this, then they enshittified their app and bricked the desktop version. [0]: https://proton.me/authenticator
mixmastamyk
Does your browser have the email password saved?
autoexec
Man, passwords sure are nice aren't they! All you have to do is remember one because your password manager remembers all the rest of your randomly generated passwords for you and as long as you keep a backup of the password database you never have to worry about this bullshit.
thrownaway561
Honestly.... This is why I have everything in Bitwarden. All 2FA runs through it so even if my phone got stolen, I could still access everything. I honestly don't understand why more people don't pay the $10 a year and just use Bitwarden.
beej71
It's a good reminder to everyone who uses 2FA. Be sure you have multiple ways in for when your phone becomes unusable.
mrj
This is why my self-hosted Vaultwarden is my one password that I have to remember and requires no 2fa, which is the only important account that doesn't have 2fa. If I wake up in a bathtub missing a kidney I can still get to my passwords and 2fa sources stored with it. Some accounts require SMS (annoyingly) so I'd have to buy a phone but the auth and credit card numbers I need to do that are in Vaultwarden, too. I don't have good solutions now for OP (other than buy a new phone through your carrier and transfer the number). But everyone else do think through your personal DRP. Generate backup codes and put them somewhere safe, too.
mqtx
Have a look at: https://github.com/muquit/twofa-rescue
jeroenhd
You can add a passkey (preferably a physical one) to authenticate. You can also add a software passkey but that kind of defeats the purpose. Actually keeping your recovery options recent is the trick. Print out your recovery codes or store them somewhere safe. Check regularly (yearly, maybe more often) that there's a way to access your critical accounts. For Google, you can also grab the cheapest Android phone you can find, sign in, and maybe boot it once a month or so to keep the tokens active. If you've set up your account to only accept one source of 2FA and you lose thst source of 2FA, you lose your account. Same happens when you set up your account to only accept your password and then lose your password. If you lose your recovery email/2FA backup codes, you lose access, unless you're special enough to convince customer support that you are who you claim you are and not just a bot trying to hack you. If you've lost your account and haven't set up any recovery mechanisms, you're probably out of luck. Your best bet will be looking for an old browser session with enough trust from Google's side to get access without reconfirming your 2FA trust.
tonymet
can you recover one of the old contact points (phone or email) for a reset code? I would send a paper letter to the Google legal contact. It's the only way to get escalated support. I agree the covenant for account recovery has been broken. Every 6 months, a new artifact is expected to access the account, without adequate preparation for the recovery.
happyopossum
All those times you logged in and were prompted to verify your backup email address, and when you set up 2FA and were given recovery codes, and when given the option to sync 2FA codes to another copy of the authenticator app: This Is Why. I'm sorry you're dealing with this - hopefully everyone else here can take it as a cautionary tale.
splitwheel
This happened to me on my iPhone 8 many years ago. I reset it to let my son use it, and did not have google authenticator in mind. I had to reset each account with the providers. Now I use a cloud account to sync these. I reset most accounts with an SMS or email one time code -- which led me to remove SMS and email as recovery options from google. And, I put a code on t-mobile to prevent sim transfer.