So I’m trying to make a group in LFG, and I’m seeing its locked behind this message in red “You can’t edit this field until you secure your account with the Battle.net authenticator and SMS protect”
So, I downloaded the authenticator app on my phone. I added the serial number and code into my account page. I also added my mobile phone in account information.
I exit out of the game, reload the game, log back in, and I’m still seeing it is locked.
What have I missed?
Great.
Now you need to set up SMS Protect as well.
SMS Protect is just “Phone Notifications”, adding your phone in the Account Management section is all you need to do. Raichuu has completed this step.
Raichuu, you may need to just give it some time. It may take up to 30 minutes / 1 hour for those changes to be reflected in-game. It’s similar to receiving the additional backpack slots.
why are we being forced to use an authenticator to be able to access core parts of the game?
You can access it just fine. You just can’t customize it, and it’s hardly a core feature. Folks can’t even access it until level 50+. Same reason attaching an authenticator gives you more bag space or a pet. It’s an added bonus of sorts.
While it isn’t perfect, it has helped to curb a lot of the LFG seller spam. That which remains? Because of the added methods of authenticating accounts, it will also help to weed them out and ban better for those that still break the rules.
You can still create groups, you just can’t customize a few lines of text. Guild Masters have been able to limit member’s ranks and such by the same means, even if the majority hasn’t made use of it. There are still ways around this, run things with a friend who does have an authenticator and SMS set up on their phone.
Though to answer your question outright? Because Blizzard says so, and it’s their game. If putting some pretty basic safeguards on your account is such an anathema to you, then I honestly don’t know what to tell you. If you’re one of the minority who cannot set up SMS due to their phone number/plan or are in some odd international situation, I am sincerely sorry for you. Perhaps in time something can be fixed or set-up to work with those situations. If you’re against it for the sake of BLIZZARD CAN’T FORCE ME TO DO THINGS…well. In this situation, they can if you want to make the full use of the LFG.
It only took two days for the gold/LFG seller spam to start up again in group finder… Feels bad, man.
(…but yes, this change reduced the amount of ads from ~50-65% of groups being ads to 5-10%, which is much nicer than having multiple chat windows worth of “Complaint Registered.” in my chatbox.)
It was inevitable, but even at the cost of some people not being able to set their phones up (not by choice, but out of their hands due to being international or their plans/vendors/some weird programming on the number itself), the benefit outweighs the inconvenience. There really isn’t a full-on way to stop botters until idiot players stop making use of their services, but this was an admittedly huge step in the right direction.
Hopefully, in time there’ll be an alternative for those in the situations I listed above.
It’s really not a core feature, more of a courtesy, and people abused it. Blizzard could have just made a UI where no one can edit fields, they went this route.
thank you Kalv, I just had to wait 20-30 minutes and it started working for me, thanks
Appreciate the follow-up and confirmation 
Okay, so the autofill feature still works? Then thats not so bad.