Will my Google Authenticator codes work if I restore my iPhone from a backup?

Question

The latest iOS update (11.1.1) bricked my iPhone, and it appears that I will need to reset the phone to factory settings and then restore from my (iTunes) backup. I have a fairly recent backup available, but by far the most important thing that I need to be sure will continue to work is my Google Authenticator codes.

I'm not changing devices, just reseting and restoring from backup to the same one. Will my Google Authenticator codes work if I restore my iPhone from a backup?

Answer 1

Source:

According to this Google Community answer, you should be able to restore from iCloud and it will work.

If you back up your information using iCloud, you can restore your iPhone or iPad from iCloud, and you’ll be able to use the previous version of our Google Authenticator app.

Answer 2

You can restore Google Authenticator with all accounts ONLY on the device where you activate this accounts(by scanning QR). Because this accounts tied to your device hardware.

My story:

I bought a new iPhone, made iTunes backup on my PC and fully reset and cleared all settings and content from the old one. After restore the backup on the new iPhone all accounts disappeared from Google Authenticator. But after I restored my old phone - all accounts restored as well.

Answer 3

For me, iOS 11.1 did not brick my phone. It made it unusable in a variety of amusing ways, but it didn't brick it.

The main issue I had was similar to yours - Google Authenticator had been completely wiped clean.

Thankfully, my iPhone backs up every night so I lost less than 1 days information (and no photos). This included restoring my Google Authenticator to a fully functional state - so the answer to your question is yes, your Google Authenticator information is stored in iCloud backups.

It also turned out that I had no recovery codes for my various accounts. I have 11 accounts in my Google Authenticator app - including Cloud Flare and Teamviewer. Neither of these apps have a backup 2FA method (like a text, a phone call or similar) - and Teamviewer do not offer any official support to free accounts. This meant I was locked out of my Teamviewer account permanently.

I can't stress this enough: ensure you have your backup codes stored somewhere - somewhere safe:

Personally I've put them in my password manager, but the Notes app on your iPhone is also perfect for this - or print them out and file them somewhere you won't forget. I'm also considering disabling 2FA login to Teamviewer.

Answer 4

Restoring an encrypted backup from iTunes will NOT restore Google Authenticator settings. The restore will install Google Authenticator but with no settings -- it will be like a freshly installed copy.

This is based on my experience restoring a backup to a device of the same model after a replacement.

Answer 5

I have verified that you can retain all google authentication codes by restoring from Itunes. So both iCloud and Itunes backups will work successfully.

Answer 6

At least currently, yes. I created an encrypted backup in iTunes, wiped my iPhone, and restored from that backup. I had my Google Authenticator codes on my phone again after the wipe. If your backup was not encrypted, I don't know if it would save the codes since it generally doesn't save passwords (in their vague wording).

This is only my experience. This is not documented anywhere, so proceed with caution. I only tried this after disabling 2FA on the sites I use it with.

Answer 7

I was recently very stupid and forgot my iPad passcode, which meant after 10 attempts, the iPad was disabled and my only option was to restore the iPad from a recent iCloud backup. With great stress and apprehension, the device restored and on opening Google Authenticator, all of my 2FA codes were present and worked.

Answer 8

The answer is NO. Google Authenticator does not save your settings, configured sites or whatsoever in the iTunes backup. If you restore your iPhone from backup, the Google Authenticator app will be blank. Actually this is the desired behavior due to the verification workflow that relies on the actual device.

Answer 9

Call me crazy, but I have a second device with Google Authenticator. When I scan a QR code for 2FA for a site, I do it on both my iPhone and the second device (the generated codes are identical on both devices).