My account(s) disappeared from Google Authenticator
On September 3 2013, we released a new version of the Google Authenticator app for iOS. Shortly after the update went live in the App Store, we learned that it contained a flaw that makes the app unable to read the account data stored in the previous version. We pulled the app from the App Store as soon as we could.
If you are having trouble accessing your Google Account and you’ve recently downloaded version 2.0 of the iOS app, you’ll need to access your account without using a code from Google Authenticator as you normally would.
If you back up your information using iCloud, you can restore your iOS device from iCloud, and you’ll be able to use the previous version of our Google Authenticator app.
If you’re not an iCloud Backup user, choose one of the three options below to get back into your account:
Backup phone: If you have a backup phone number listed on your account, select the option to send the verification code to this backup phone number. You should see this option listed on the page that comes up after you enter your username and password on the sign-in screen.
Trusted computer: If you’ve previously marked a device, such as a personal laptop, as “trusted,” sign in to your Google Account using that device. This way, you can sign in without using a verification code.
Backup codes: If you’ve previously printed out or saved your backup codes, you can enter in an unused code when prompted for a verification code.
If none of these three options work for you, you can try to recover your account by going to our account recovery page.
Once you’ve signed in to your account, go to your 2-step verification settings page and change your settings so that you receive your verification codes via SMS (click “Switch to phone,” as seen in the image below), instead of Google Authenticator. Once we release an updated version of the Google Authenticator app, you can download that version and switch your 2-step verification settings back to receive codes via the app.