Also if they did make such a change, how can we restore our mobile authenticator if the old mobile is dead like mine ?
I didn’t purchase a new mobile, rather my old one suddenly broke without any notice, so I am locked out of half of my account nor can I login from a new device anymore. even though I have my Serial & Restore code backed up.
There wasn’t even any warning about this change from blizzard. (if it is true that is)
I already tried this, but disabling the authenticator app need me to give my authentication code first lol my mobile is broken so I don’t have any authentication code.
No, there was no warning. BUT the Support article now only references the restore feature for iCloud stuff. So, this could be true that the Auth is now device specific other than iCloud.
They tend to be rather secretive about Security things for good reason. However, changing the process to move to a new phone is a big deal. My MVP contact is one of the Forum Support Agents for the Customer Support forum where they handle helping folks with questions and policies. He did not know about this. None of the other Tech Support MVPs knew either so it had not popped up for us yet.
I will do more checking on Monday once folks are back to work. IF this is true and we really can’t restore to a different phone the Auth OR put it on more than one non-apple device at once, it is a major change.
it is indeed a major change and it kind of make the whole Serial and Recovery Code function pretty useless.
I mean what is the use of backing them up, if you can’t use them without having access to your current authenticator ? in fact you can get them anytime you want if u have your authenticator, so there is absolutely no reason the application tell us to back them up lol
but fortunately for me, I just remembered my very old cheap Chinese tablet I bought 5-6 years ago for 50$ and didn’t use it for years now, still have my Blizzard authenticator in it lol
After turning it on I was able to get my authentication code and use it.
there is no one-click function, probably due to it being a very old version of authenticator app. but the code alone fixed my work.
Please keep on top of this, this is very important to me. I have a working, valid active authenticator and I just want to have a spare code generator on an old android phone.
Same situation here, with an interesting twist. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 that was always running the authenticator correctly, and all was well. I did a factory reset, and a fresh load of the phone, and at that point, the authenticator refused to restore.
Interestingly, I was encrypting the external SD card at the time, and all of the attempts I made to restore the Authenticator failed while that was running. (My Starbucks app failed to reload my gift card, too, interestingly.) But literally the moment the encryption completed, I rebooted my phone, and was then immediately able to get my authenticator to restore.
During encryption the external SD card is marked as both available and offline, so I wonder if that was confusing the app somehow. This is probably an edge case and I’m reporting it to Blizzard, but just wanted to state that the lock on the external SD card appears to be related, and the release of that lock solved the issue.
Or maybe it was just the reboot… but still a strange coincidence.
Thank you. With the notification of your post and your success at restoring I went ahead and tried again. It works now!
Heads up MissCheetah: sounds like the initial response that was reported about the Authenticator not being transferable was not true.
For technical details, I didn’t “need” to use the restore codes, in the android version I had to sign in, get sent an email challenge code, provide that, and my Authenticator restored appropriately. Both my primary iPhone and this spare android are now displaying the same TOTP code as well as serial number info.
I think that behind the scenes the blizzard service was not functioning correctly and it’s now fixed.
I no longer need help on this issue but I wasn’t the one who started the thread. Please follow up with that person.
Not sure if something changed on Blizzard’s end, but today everything started working again and was able to restore my authenticator to more devices (using both restore code and login)
Nice dude. It was definitely on Blizzards end. Same experience as you with nothing changing in my configuration.
Really!?! Yay!
I sincerely hope that escalating this fixed it. I wish I could get actual answers but my contacts are all front facing forum folks who have nothing to do with the security side.
Still, progress and updates are good!
This thread was very well done with clear explanations, troubleshooting steps you took, updates, etc. Those who have to fix errors appreciate it a LOT.
Fingers crossed all is better now.
Greetings!
First, thank you all for the information in this thread and to MissCheetah for escalating this issue through Customer Service. We deeply care about Authenticator security and the capabilities within the application.
In early October, we identified an issue where some users were unable to restore their Authenticator using existing restore/backup codes. This issue was resolved on October 5th, re-enabling restore/backup for those users.
The Backup and Restore feature in the Authenticator remains unchanged and existing backup codes are still valid for switching between different devices.
If you still encounter a problem restoring an Authenticator, we ask that you please start a new thread or contact Customer Service.
– Kraiden
!!! Thank you so much for the follow up. It means a lot to me and I am sure to impacted players too. Feedback to us is a fantastic thing.
Glad it is fixed now!
