Background:
I use the battle.net app w/ authenticator and like a good player, I’ve backed up my serial + restore code
Scenario:
My phone breaks, and I get a new one. I download the battle.net app and go to login for the first time.
I now need to approve the login with the authenticator.
Question:
How could you ever login again to access and restore the authenticator if can’t login without it?
This scenario would be one that needs a GM’s assistance in order to remove the authenticator from your account. In an ideal world, the transfer between devices is when you still have functioning possession of both and its a seamless user-side process.
That’s exactly my concern.
What exactly is the purpose of backing up the serial and restore now with this new setup where your authenticator is BEHIND your account login?
… so that you can be proactive about your account security and deal with the transfer while you still have possession of both functioning devices, as I stated above.
Certainly there are going to be outlying scenarios that cannot be covered by all aspects of the feature, which is why there’s the fallback of GM assistance in situations where that cannot be helped.
Having that sort of control in our hands for certain situations frees them up for other pressing matters until there’s no other option.
The expectation that people have a random $500-1000 lying around for a second phone outside of the emergency situation of the current one breaking is tone deaf at best.
I’d get a new phone if my current one breaks, but that breakage means I lost the authenticator.
If the authenticator is tied to the account now, why do I even need the restore code to begin with?
This whole setup seems shortsighted and a massive problem waiting to happen.
If you’d like to make a suggestion in how things should operate, I would suggest either making a post over in General Discussion or through the in-game suggestion and feedback interface.
Unfortunately by posting here, you’re only getting us - your fellow players. Due to this forum’s format of being one for players to assist other players, no staff comes here to collect data (our SFAs are the only Blues you’ll see posting here, and they have no part to play in relaying things along), so your questions are only being posed to those who don’t have any idea behind what the Devs were thinking when they designed things this way. We’re not privy to the hows and whys they chose to do this the way it’s currently designed.
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Did you follow the steps in the support article?
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If you had an android backup in Place, it might restore the app to the new phone with serial intact.
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Those steps don’t apply. That’s written from when the authenticator was a separate app.
There was no such issue in that case. The issue is that the authenticator is now behind your account login… which requires the authenticator to login.
@Lilleath, I didn’t realize that this wasn’t one of the forums that blizz would look at and reply.
I guess I should probably do a ticket instead.
Assuming you keep the same phone number and have SMS Protect/Phone Notifications turned on, you would use that to set it up.
As for the serial number and restore code, those are mostly identifiers that you can provide to us if you need to contact Support. That said, you may not need to log into the Battlenet app, if you click on Open Authenticator, there may be a place to enter that information in Settings (once it is set up those options might change, so I can’t check that myself).
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