Why Back Up?¶
Every account in Private Authenticator has a secret setup key inside it, and the app is the only place that key exists (plus your iCloud Keychain, if you chose to sync). Lose the phone, drop it in the sea, or have it die on you, and without a backup every account has to be recovered through each website's own procedure. Some sites make that easy. Some make it take a week. A few can't do it at all.
A Private Authenticator backup takes about two minutes and solves all of that.
What a backup is¶
The app turns all your accounts into one or more pictures: PNG images full of QR codes. Everything in the pictures is encrypted with a recovery key that the app makes for you and shows you exactly once. Without the key, the pictures are useless to anyone, including Pebble IT and including you, so the key is the part you must keep safe.
[Screenshot: a backup image, showing its title, the grid of QR codes and the footer]
What's in it¶
- Every account's setup key and code settings, so its codes work exactly as before.
- Each account's name, description and tags, and whether it's archived.
- Your list of tags.
- The order of your Recent list.
Steam Guard accounts and accounts with unusual code settings are included, which is one reason to prefer a backup to an export. Your settings (the launch lock, the timeouts, the sync choice) are not included; they belong to the phone.
Where to keep it¶
Because the pictures are encrypted, they can live anywhere pictures live: your Photos library (including iCloud Photos), a folder in Files (including iCloud Drive), a computer, a USB stick. Keep two copies if you like.
Keep the recovery key somewhere else. A password manager is ideal. A piece of paper in a drawer is fine. What you must not do is keep the key next to the images, for example as a screenshot in the same Photos library, because then anyone who finds one has both. Your Recovery Key has more.
When to make one¶
- Right after you've set the app up and added your accounts.
- Whenever you've added or changed a few accounts since the last one. A backup is a snapshot; new accounts aren't added to an old backup.
- Before you change your sync choice, delete all data, or move to a new iPhone.
An old backup still works as long as you have its key, so there's no harm in keeping several.
The websites' own backup codes still matter
When a website turns on two-step verification it usually gives you some one-time backup codes. Keep those too. They get you back into that site even if you lose the phone and your Private Authenticator backup.
Continue to Making a Backup.