Recovery Code Issue

I had to create a new account just to post on forums. My main account I tried to login to but i dont have my 2FA code written down cause I didnt think i would need it. I tried to do recovery codes, but when i click where it says recovery code on the enter your 2FA code, it does nothing. it just refreshes the page. My email is REMOVED.

That is the main purpose of 2FA !
If u lost! You lost all!

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Welcome!

When you turned on 2FA, you got a message saying to take a copy of your codes and store them securely. The message also said that if you lose the codes, you will not be able to log in to your account. If you don’t have these codes, and cannot authorize your account, you have effectively locked yourself out, forever.

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like i said, i have the recovery codes but i cant even use them cause idk how or where to use them

Wait, do you have the codes or not?

Can you send a screenshot for clarification?

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the 2fa code is 6 numbers. the recovery code is 20 followed by a “-” in the middle and when i created my account it gave me like 6 lines of recovery codes

We did update the authentication this week, and it appears that a bug snuck into the system.

I’m making a fix for this right now. Please try again in half an hour or so.

The “2FA code” is the 6 digit code generated by your authenticator app. You don’t need to store the QR code or secret key, as long as you have the authenticator set up and the recovery codes stored.

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ya thats the thing i dont have such an app. i mean the 2FA said its a one time code so i figured it just meant u use it once and u dont need to use it again. But i do have the recovery codes just not the 2FA code

Then how do you log in to your account? The entire point of 2FA is to have the app.

Yes, the backup codes are. The backup codes are there for then the app does not work, or you cannot access it.

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well i created my account a year or two ago and recently logged in after not using this service for that long and i activated 2FA and i used my phone’s camera to scan the QRcode and just posted it in safari’s web address just to view and closed out when i was done. Like i said, i thought that one time use meant just using it once and i wouldnt ever need to use it again since thats what one time use means. basically when i logged in and it asked me to enter the 2fa code and specifically said its a 6 digit number, and i tried to click below where it said " Lost your device? Use Recovery Code", it did nothing. so i tried to enter the first line of 20 numbers and letters in the picture above and it said

wait a minute. nvm im able to access the recovery code input page.

So you got it working?

Then how did you enable 2FA in the first place? You get a QR code, you scan it with your authenticator app, and then you enter the code it generates to activate 2FA.

The QR code generates one time codes. You need to generate one each and every time you want to login. So when activating 2FA, you put the QR code in your authenticator app, and then enter the codes generated by the app when logging in. So it’s very important that you scan the code in the app and keep it there, or you won’t be able to generate a one time password to login.

In your mind, how did you expect two factor authentication was going to work?

The recovery code link didn’t work yesterday. That has been fixed now.


Although you marked the topic as “Solved”, you absolutely still need to setup two factor authentication properly. Always logging in with recovery codes is not a good idea, because recovery codes are actually single use.

Please reset your two factor authentication and setup your authenticator app correctly.

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well when i scanned it using my phone’s camera app, it asked me where i want to store it.

im not using recovery codes. I actually went and download some random authenticator app

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