Their 2FA is awfully annoying. I’ve seen they basically require you to have YouTube installed as well in order to verify it’s you (why would I need that if I already have you password + code)?
Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#22I kid you not. Google's actual official answer to this is... create another account![1][2][3] Edit: Now that I have your attention: PSA: Go create "Backup codes" for your Google Account in your 2-Step Verification settings. [1]: https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/2402620?h... [2]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439 [3]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7299973
Oh my, obviously not the solution we look for
Yes, but perhaps now that we know first hand how bad this can get, we can collectively prevent it from happening to others. :/
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I have used Authy, which apparently is somehow protocol compatible with Google Authenticator, and you can back up your tokens with a password. I got a new phone, installed the app, entered the password, and all my tokens were there.
So now your second factor is... the Authy master password?
And the private key material Authy has in its database.
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#24Can we please ban these sorts of posts? This isn't news. People's news feeds are not the place for individual tech support problems. Take it to the Google community forum.
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I have used Authy, which apparently is somehow protocol compatible with Google Authenticator, and you can back up your tokens with a password. I got a new phone, installed the app, entered the password, and all my tokens were there.
So now your second factor is... the Authy master password?
Which is still strongly preferable to getting locked out of everything because Google Authenticator refuses to participate in device backups. Lucky for me I found out about that well before I moved to "2FA wherever possible", but I still had to send some vendors scans of my driver's license to get back into my accounts with them.
Maybe they've fixed that since then, but I don't care. I'd rather risk a theoretical flaw in Authy's E2EE than risk getting screwed again, and by now much more thoroughly, by the flaw I know about in Google Authenticator.
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#26I once changed my Gmail password and promptly forgot it. When I was trying to recover it, I had no MFA set up (I had a yubikey, but somehow that wasn't allowed???), so the only option left for me was to provide them with the month and year I created the account. Since it was roughly a 10 year old account, I had no idea what those numbers were. There was also no way to reach out to an actual human for help through the…
I find it interesting they didn't block you. Also, would this be affected by the latest changes at Twitter?
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#27I lost my work Gmail account several years ago due to this and vowed never to go back to Google.
It was a slow decay, though, where over the course of a few months I just became less and less able to log in. (Unfortunately when I could log in, I couldn't do anything to change my recovery phone number to one I actually had access to because that triggered another verification round that I could not pass because I didn't have access to the old phone number.)
The best advice I can offer is to try find an old device that you once logged in from and you haven't upgraded or cleared cookies or anything. Then try to go back to the same country, city and ISP you used where it worked. Do not log in from public wifi! Make sure all your OS-level language, time zone and region settings are the exact same as they were last time you were successful too. If you are lucky you may be able to get in without a phone number and back up your data somewhere else.
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I have used Authy, which apparently is somehow protocol compatible with Google Authenticator, and you can back up your tokens with a password. I got a new phone, installed the app, entered the password, and all my tokens were there.
So now your second factor is... the Authy master password?
Ha. Happens to be there is a script out there somewhere which allows you to extract the private key of any of your MFA codes from Authy through Chrome DevTools (it's an Electron app) so you can use it in whichever MFA solution you want.
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#29I kid you not. Google's actual official answer to this is... create another account![1][2][3] Edit: Now that I have your attention: PSA: Go create "Backup codes" for your Google Account in your 2-Step Verification settings. [1]: https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/2402620?h... [2]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439 [3]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7299973
Man I love how tech companies have "innovated" customer service obsolete.
Re: Tell HN: I can't login to Gmail due to phone cannot be used for verification
#30This phone verification shit is so awful. I have two friends who moved overseas and disconnected their cellphone plans without thinking about their MFA situation. Today I have to enforce MFA at the small company I'm working at, and just a month prior I held a cybersecurity seminar for them and explained that "phone MFA is… okay… but you should really use verification apps." But I didn't realize that you can't even en…
I moved across the country a few years ago, and just a few months ago got a new phone on a new carrier. For a brief moment, I considered getting a new number. No more spam texts and calls (or at least different ones)? Having an area code matching where I lived? Seemed like positives, and it'd take me about 10 minutes to email or text my new number to the relevant parties.
I hadn't considered MFA because I use Authenticator and have most of my TOTP seeds in 1Password anyway, but man I'm thinking I dodged a bullet because there are a handful of things that use SMS only.