How to Move Your Google Authenticator to Your New Phone

Two-factor authentication is undoubtedly a famous and handy security precaution for many individuals, but at the same time, it is additive anxiety that adds to more cyber threat vulnerabilities. Since you must have upgraded your smartphones with the Google Authenticator, changing cellular devices require manual migration of Google Authenticator to your new phone – as the codes do not migrate automatically.

Fast-Forward:

• You can migrate Google Authenticator to your new upgraded device to obtain maximized security through two-step verification.
• You have the option to set up Google two-step Authentication on your device in use.

Gratefully it is not that technical to move the codes obtained from the Google Authenticator from one device to the other. However, the process can be time-consuming and cumbersome for a few.

A brief history of a traditional single password

Two-step authentication provides greater account checks and balances for your accounts, unlike the conventional single password method, as it requires “two steps” to get into your applications powered by Google.

Google Authenticator is a step forward to verify two-step codes before accessing your accounts. It’s an identity check to mitigate the risk of identity theft.

Migration from an older to a newer phone

Since you are an old user of Google Authenticator 2FA, you will require to move it from one phone to another. Here are some straightforward steps:

1. Install the Google Authenticator app to your iPhone or Android device,
2. Open Google’s webpage for two-step authentication on the Mac browser and log in. When you get into your account, you can see the option to “Move to a different phone,”
3. Click on the move to a different phone and then click continue,
4. You will be prompted to show a QR code displaying on your screen,
5. You need to open your phone, not an older one but a newer one, and follow the instructions on your screen. You can tap on the QR code of “scan a barcode,”
6. A six-digit code pops up immediately after you successfully scan the barcode. The code is subject to revision every few minutes because of security concerns. Please type the code on your desktop and then clicks “verify,”
7. Congratulations, it is all set on your new device.

The premise of these actions was to retrieve codes only from authenticated or registered devices (especially those under your control). Otherwise, the value of the entire 2FA concept would be moot. The migration steps listed above will not have any issues IF you jump from one universe (iPhone) to another Galaxy – Android.

The steps were straightforward or plain easy. The only cumbersome part is connecting other applications to Google Authenticator. Please migrate each application one by one. This is why we labeled this process as time-consuming.

The point of concern here is that we perform such measures to secure ourselves from cyber threats, most notably – SIM cloning/hijacking/swapping or whatever you call it. Despite having 2FA, your phone is still vulnerable to SIM Swap, so criminals can get into your accounts. Your current carrier will not protect you, so switch to Efani, experts in preventing this attack. Make better choices, and as a second resort, you can use Authy with Efani as a blend of both makes things easier.

With your new phone, you can choose Efani – a new carrier with a 60-day money-back guarantee and with Authy codes syncing across the device is convenient. You do not have this (flexible) sync option with Google Authenticator. Authy works as 2FA on multiple devices. The codes and the provided passwords are encrypted, and the cloud system stores this data. This makes migration easier – offering a balance of convenience and security. We will be talking about syncing cloud codes in the next blog.

Want Guaranteed Protection Against SIM Swap? Reach Out to Us.