Newbie Administrator - I've got a new phone

[psmerdon]

I have inherited administrating this WordPress website that uses Duo for logins, using push notifications to mobile phones.

I have been successfully using Duo for some time, adding WordPress users who then set up Duo etc.

Now, I need to reconfigure something for myself.

I am getting a new phone, and need to register the new phone, to replace the old phone.
All the documentation I’ve found on this subject in■■■■ates that I should have an option on the WordPress/Duo login screen for “Register a new device”, or if I don’t have that option that I need to get the Administrator (that’s me!) to register the device.

I have access to the web dashboard but cannot see any options to either add the “register new device” option to the login screen, or manually register a new device for a user.

Can somebody please set me straight on this?
I’m sure it’s a trivial matter, but I don’t want to find myself inadvertently locked out of my WordPress website by doing something wrong.

I will still have the old phone, but will be moving the SIM to the new phone at changeover.

Thanks in advance.
Peter Smerdon.

[andymayle]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for using Duo, it’s great that you have found using Duo to be a simple and efficient authentication process so far.
If you aren’t seeing the option on your login screen you can reactivate a device in the web admin panel.
When you receive your new phone first install the Duo Mobile App from the relevant app store.
In the admin panel you just need to Click on Administrators on the left side panel and find your administrative user, click into the user and scroll down to secondary authentication. You should see a reactivate link. Click this link and it will display a QR code which you can scan with Duo Mobile to activate Duo on your new device.

Andy

[psmerdon]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Now that I know what “reactivate” means it makes it much easier.

Hopefully it will all go well, otherwise, I’ll be back here.

Regards,
PeterS

[DuoKristina]

Hi Peter,

You may need to activate your new phone as both an end user of Duo (on order to be able to log into Wordpress using Duo) and as a Duo Administrator (to access the Duo Admin Panel at https://admin.duosecurity.com. If you look at the Duo Mobile app on your current phone, do you have two accounts listed; one that says “DUO-PROTECTED” and one that says “DUO ADMIN”? The former is an end-user account and the latter is a Duo admin account. You want to make sure both get activated on your new phone.

For your Duo admin account:

Log into the Admin Panel and view your own admin user properties. From there you can reactivate Duo Push and scan the barcode with the app as @amayle suggested.

For your Duo end user:

The “Register a new device” option shows up on the Duo Prompt if the self-service portal option was enabled on the Duo Wordpress application when it was created (paid Duo plans only). If you don’t see that option it probably isn’t on.

Instead, send a reactivation to your new phone from the Duo Admin Panel. View your end-user and click the Reactivate link for Duo Mobile. You have the option of sending the new link to yourself via SMS (if you swapped the SIM card into your new phone), or you can copy the reactivation link and email it to yourself (if your new phone is on WiFi-only).

[psmerdon]

I am pleased to report I got both the Duo admin and WordPress logins transferred successfully.
The Duo admin reactivation went smoothly, but the WordPress one was a little fraught. I had to futz about quite a bit to get it done.

In the phone changeover (Android phone) I transferred my Apps and data from the old phone to the new one. When I started the Duo app, it prompted me to do a restore from backup, which I did. That gave me the old Duo admin and WordPress accounts in the reinstalled app.
I suspect that’s what caused my issues.
For future reference, should I have deleted the old Duo app and started with a clean copy?

Is this “changing phones” info available somewhere in a FAQ?
I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Given how frequently we all change our phones, this would seem to be a common need.

Thanks again for all your help.

Regards,
PeterS

[Amy2]

Hi Peter,

Whenever you get a new phone, you must activate Duo Mobile on the new device in order to use it to authenticate. Duo Restore helps with account recovery for Duo-protected and third-party accounts if you’ve created a backup on the old device, but Administrator accounts will still need to be re-activated separately. Follow the instructions at https://help.duo.com/s/article/1006 for that process.

As an end user of Duo, this article has more information on how changing your phone, number, or SIM card will impact the Duo Mobile app and what to do in each case.

To answer your question, no, you do not need to delete the Duo Mobile app. Deleting the app on Android will delete all accounts from your device and wipe the potential for unassisted account recovery. Read more on deleting Duo Mobile in the article here.

[psmerdon]

Thanks for the response.

I will file all this valuable info for future reference.

Regards,
Peter Smerdon.