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Just realized my password manager almost locked me out of my own life
So this went down about 3 weeks ago on a Sunday night when my phone decided to die and take my 2FA codes with it. I have been preaching to everyone that a password manager plus app based 2FA is the gold standard, and I still think that, but nobody warns you what happens when the phone holding the codes is the thing that breaks. I could not get into my email, my bank, or my work account because every single one needed the code from the dead phone. My backup codes were in a folder on my laptop, which was fine, except the laptop also wanted a code to log in. It took me 6 hours at a Verizon store in Fairfax and a phone call to my brother to get back into my own accounts. The popular advice is always just use 2FA and you are safe, but nobody says print the backup codes and keep them somewhere that is not the same device. So here is my real question, do you keep your backup codes on paper, and where do you actually put them so they survive a house fire?
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the_nathan2d ago
My wake-up call was an iPhone that took a swim in a lake in 2022, and the fix was a cheap fireproof document bag I got on Amazon for like 25 bucks. It lives in a lockbox bolted to the floor in my closet, and inside is a printed page with all my backup codes plus the recovery key for my password manager. Every January I reprint it because codes change when you add or remove devices, and I do a test run where I log into one account using only the paper. The house fire worry is real but a fireproof bag plus a spot that is not near the kitchen is about as good as a normal person can do, and honestly most house fires do not burn everything to ash anyway. One more thing, keep a copy at your brother's place or in a safe deposit box if you have one, because two locations beats one.
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