Signing in using backup codes

Signing in using backup codes

Basics of backup codes

If you lose your phones or otherwise can't receive codes via SMS, voice call, or Google Authenticator, you can use backup codes to sign in. These codes are available on your Accounts overview page and were first offered to you at the end of the 2-step verification setup.
The codes come in sets of 10, and you can generate a new set at any point, automatically making the old set inactive. In addition, after you've used a backup code to sign in, it will become inactive.
We recommend you store your codes wherever you keep your other valuable items. Like the codes on your phone, backup codes are only valuable to someone if they manage to also steal your password.

Creating and viewing a set of backup codes

To create a new set of backup codes:

1. Sign in to your accounts at https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsAuthConfig.
2. Look for the "Printable backup codes" area.
3. Click Show/Generate codes.
4. If you are fine using the current set of backup codes, you can print or download them. If you believe this set of codes might have been stolen or you've used many of the backup codes, you can generate a new set by clicking Generate new codes.

Signing in

1. Locate your backup codes.

2. Go to the sign-in page of the Google service you want to use (for example, Gmail).

3. Enter your username and password.
4. Enter your backup code in the box next to the phone icon, where you would normally enter your verification code.

5. Optional: As each code can be used only once, you might want to mark the code as used.

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Turning off 2-step verification

Turning off 2-step verification

Did your email client or applications stop working when you turned on 2-step verification? Don't fret -- you can get applications and devices that need access to your Google Account working again in minutes using application-specific passwords.

Turning off 2-step verification

1. Visit the Using 2-step verification page under your Google Account settings. Sign in with your username, password, and verification code if prompted.
2. Click Turn off 2-step verification.
3. A pop-up window will appear to confirm that you want to turn off 2-step verification. Click OK.

Revoking and destroying passwords and codes to protect your account

If you used application-specific passwords to authorize applications to access your Google Account, we recommend you go back to using passwords -- rather than application-specific passwords -- to access these applications. That way, you can revoke your application-specific passwords so nobody else can use them:

1. Visit the Authorizing applications & sites page under your Google Account settings.
2. Click Revoke for any application or device whose code you want to revoke.
3. For each application that you revoked an application-specific password, you'll need to reauthorize the application by entering your username and password, as you did before you turned on 2-step verification. You might not be prompted for this information the next time you use the application as some applications will take longer to recognized that an application-specific password has been revoked.

In addition, remember to destroy all backup codes that you had been using to verify this account.

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