Reactivating Duo accounts after upgrading Iphone for individual users

[thyorke]

I am an individual Duo user with no IT department or Admin. I upgraded to Iphone 13 and can no longer use Duo, please help me get my existing accounts back and continue to use the app with others.

[Amy2]

Hi @thyorke, welcome to the Duo Community! Let’s see if we can help you with this. Did you back up your accounts on Duo Mobile with Duo Restore for Third-party Accounts? You would have had to set a recovery password at the time of backup. If so, you can restore your iOS device from an iCloud backup, open the Duo Mobile app, and follow the prompts on-screen to recover your accounts, entering the recovery password in Duo Mobile when prompted.
If not, do you still have access to your old device? I know many people trade in their old device when they get a new one, so it might be a long shot.
If none of these options are available to you, please take a look at this article on what to do if you’re locked out of a third-party account: Knowledge Base | Duo Security

[thyorke]

Many thanks for your prompt response. I appreciate that Duo is a special application, but we all have many apps, too many to back up each one individually. I diligently followed the Verizon instructions on how to back up my phone on iCloud and have now sent my old phone back. Might I suggest that apps that require special treatment when upgrading to iPhone 13 communicate that to Verizon, Tmobile, and AT&T as they are aggressively promoting upgrades. I will attempt the solution you have offered but if I need to do this with every app it’s such a time-waster.

[thyorke]

The instructions to solve for my situation are scaring me, this will take forever and I have a very low degree of confidence it will work. can I delete the app and reload using a personal email instead of business email to just start over?

[Amy2]

thyorke:

can I delete the app and reload using a personal email instead of business email to just start over?

Unfortunately, no this is not possible. Duo Mobile is not tied to a specific email address (for example, you don’t log in to the Duo Mobile app itself with a username or email address and password). Instead, it is tied to your device’s hardware security module, which is unique to each device.

This requires you to either backup and recover your accounts in the Duo Mobile app, or manually reconnect them by using the recovery codes your service providers such as Instagram gave you when you first set up 2FA to regain access there, or you must contact their support teams if none of these work for you. We do have prompts in the Duo Mobile app that ask you to back up your accounts for recovery as you add them, and we’re investigating other ways to mitigate this issue for users.

[thyorke]

Ah ya, this is ridiculous. How many apps on your phone? Can you imagine every app asking to be backed up individually. You MUST tell the major carriers about this

“oopsie” otherwise you will never hear the end of it. Major screw up.

PS, I don’t specifically ask for anyone to use Duo. They generally tell me that’s what they prefer. I know Finra uses it and they are my regulator. They never gave me a code and asked me to take it to my grave. Now I cant communicate with Regulator , that’s nice, Not!

*edited by admin to remove personal identifying information, per our Community policy