If You Lose Your iPhone¶

First, the phone itself¶

Your codes are safe on a lost phone: they sit in the Keychain behind the phone's passcode, and the app asks Face ID or Touch ID before showing any of them. Even so, use Find My (from another Apple device or icloud.com/find) to mark the phone as lost, and to erase it if it isn't coming back.

Then, getting your codes back¶

Which of these applies depends on the sync question you answered when you first set the app up:

Accounts synced via iCloud KeychainAccounts kept on the device, with a backupNo sync and no backup

Set up your new iPhone with the same Apple ID and iCloud Keychain on, install Private Authenticator, and your accounts appear. See Moving to a New iPhone.

Install Private Authenticator on the new iPhone and restore the backup with its recovery key. Any account you added after the backup was made has to be set up again on its website.

Each website has to be recovered on its own. Sign in with the website's backup codes if you saved them when you set up two-step verification; if not, use the site's account-recovery process, which often means proving who you are by email, phone or documents. Once you're back in, turn two-step verification off and on again to get a new QR code, and scan it into Private Authenticator on the new phone. Then make a backup.

Your Apple Watch¶

If you have a Watch with Device Sync on, it still holds your accounts and still shows codes, behind its passcode. When you pair it with the new iPhone it's erased and set up afresh; turn Device Sync on again afterwards.

Afterwards¶

Erase the old phone remotely if you haven't already.
If you're at all unsure whether someone could have used the old phone while it was unlocked, change the passwords of your most important accounts. The codes alone aren't enough to sign in; the passwords are the other half.
Make a fresh backup on the new phone.

Continue to the Help book: Troubleshooting.