How to manage your recovery codes

How to manage your recovery codes#

For: Manager | Shift worker | Admin You’ll need: Two-factor authentication switched on, and your password.

Recovery codes are your way back in when the authenticator app isn’t available — a lost phone, a wiped device, a battery at zero. Shiftavo creates ten of them when you activate your first authenticator app, and each one signs you in exactly once.

Look up the codes you have#

  1. Open the account menu (top-right) and click ‘Account’.

  2. Click the ‘Two-factor authentication’ card.

  3. On the ‘Recovery codes’ card, read how many are left — for example ‘8 of 10 recovery codes left.’

  4. Click ‘View’ to see them, or ‘Download’ to save them as a text file.

Store them the way you’d store a password: in a password manager, or printed and locked away. Don’t keep them only on the phone that holds the authenticator app — that’s the one device they’re meant to survive.

Use a code to sign in#

At the ‘Two-factor authentication’ step, type a recovery code into the ‘Code’ field instead of the six-digit code from your app. The code is used up and won’t work a second time.

Generate a new set#

Do this when you’re running low, or when you think someone else has seen your codes.

  1. On the ‘Recovery codes’ card, click ‘Generate new codes’.

  2. Confirm it’s you on the ‘Confirm access’ screen — with your password, or with a code from your authenticator app.

  3. Read the warning, then click ‘Generate’.

  4. Download or copy the new codes.

Warning

Generating new codes invalidates the old set immediately. Anything you printed or saved earlier stops working — replace it.

Verify it worked#

The ‘Recovery codes’ card shows the full count again (‘10 of 10 recovery codes left.’), and you get an email telling you new recovery codes were generated.