How to Move Google Authenticator On IOS to a New iPhone

Finally, Google updated its handy Authenticator app on iOS, allowing users to export their large number of tokens and import them to another iPhone directly within the app. This is the biggest problem I have when using Google Authenticator on IOS, because it means I will have trouble upgrading or switching to a new iPhone; I don’t actually “move” Google Authenticator to a new iPhone like you do superior. “I will reconfigure everything from the beginning.” You must visit every service that uses 2FA and “change” it by scanning the QR code on the iPhone, or disable 2FA completely and reconfigure it, or scan the QR code.

Related: How to Take Screenshots in iOS Without That Annoying Pop-Up Preview

Either way is a headache, it makes my iPhone very jealous of Android users, they can only use the “Export Account” function directly in the app to quickly transfer their authenticator token to the new phone . I never know why it took Google so long to implement this critical feature on iOS. But it’s here, it’s very simple to use:

• Make sure you are using the latest version of Google Authenticator, you can check in the App Store> Apple ID in the upper right corner> swipe down to update your application list with updates.
• Start Google Authenticator.
• Click the three-dot icon in the upper right corner and select Export Account.
• Select up to 10 accounts to export. (Yes, you can only do 10 at a time.) After making your selection, click Export.
• Launch Google Authenticator on your new iPhone and use it to scan the QR code on your old iPhone.
• After confirming that the account has been successfully imported, please try to log in, for example, click “Done” on the old iPhone, and then click “Delete Account“.

If you have linked more than 10 accounts with Google Authenticator, please repeat the process as needed. But that’s it. This is too simple, and it ultimately makes Google Authenticator a valuable entrant in the 2FA space, at least on iOS. I’m not sure if I will leave Authy and return to the Google app, but I’m glad to know that Google Authenticator finally has everything I need.

Anyway, when I tried to export the account from the iPhone and import it into the Android version of Google Authenticator, the process failed. The app instructed me to search for a newer version of Google Authenticator in the Google Play store, which doesn’t make sense because it’s a fresh installation of the app. This leads me to believe that this feature (or fix) is coming soon, but it is not ready at the time of writing this article.