Physical authenticator dying

My physical athenticator is slowly starting to die from whatever reason. I got it back in 2008-2010 I can’t remember. Not sure what to do because I’m already using my mobile authenticator for another account. Blizzard is no longer selling physical ones so I wonder are there other types of physical authenticators accepted or Authy(mobile) that will work?

That’s a good long life for a fob that in reality, is only rated at 5 years or so :slight_smile:

Add your mobile to the second Blizzard account, should work after removing the fob.

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Thank you so much it worked! There was an issue a while back where it threw an error saying you could only have 1 mobile per account or something.

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Yes, for awhile, it was just one per account, but that was amended awhile ago.

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Can you have the reverse? Can you have a mobile authenticator AND a physical one that work the same account? Or two mobiles?

No, you cannot.

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Disappointing. Oh well. Thanks for the info.

Why would you need 2 different ones? You can clone the mobile one as many times as you like. I have mine on 4 different devices.

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Can you elaborate? It sounds like you are doing what I’m hoping to be able to do.

You can have the same authenticator installed multiple locations.

I have mobile on my phone, and my son who plays my account, not so much now that we moved the wiiu into his room has one on his phone.

It is a clone of mine. This way he does not need me to log in.

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you can use the serial number and restore code to clone the authenticator on different devices.
support article

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Precisely what I’d be looking to do with my son. We share a Bnet account but have separate WoW licenses.

Thank you for this! I’ll read up on it now. Ideally I’d be able to have the physical one that I have now and the app one for his phone. But if I absolutely must give up the physical device, I might have to consider that. Now, if my son needs the code, he texts me, I press the button, I text him back, and hope it was all quick enough. Sometimes we have to do it twice if we lose the window.

Thanks for all the help!

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This isn’t possible. A single Battle.​net account can only be attached to a single authenticator, whether it’s physical or app-based. A single authenticator app may be linked with up to 3 Battle.​net accounts.

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Right. But it looks like there’s a “workaround” that was described above that let’s you clone the app to another phone. If I have to give up my precious key fob, so be it, but at least the boy would be able to log into his license (same Bnet) without texting me for an authenticator code.

You can clone the app onto both phones, yes. As far as your Battle.​net account is concerned, that’s a single authenticator, as they will both have the same serial number. I have the authenticator on my phone and cloned to my iPad. They both work equally well, and it’s down to whichever is most convenient to grab.

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Another question about physical authenticator here; mine is old too and is starting to show signs of soon-to-die (it’s over 10 years old) but at the time I got that one, I bought a spare because reasons. The spare has never been used, and is still in it’s tiny box - if the current one dies can I replace it with the spare?

Yes. They’re still supported, just not being manufactured anymore.

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Just understand that the unused one likely won’t last long either. Even unboxed it was likely still ‘working’ as an authenticator. They don’t really turn off the way you might think they do.

My old physical, which I replaced for the mobile version, was still working when I replaced it. I haven’t touched it since and now it’s completely dead.

My recommendation would still be to move to the mobile version (which I really do love much more than the physical one) sooner than later.

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I expect the wind-down is mostly attributable to the age of the batteries.

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I have my fob from Cata. Ill be sad the day it dies. It goes with me on vacations if I bring my laptop with me. I will be sad the day it dies.