Can't enable 2FA — it keeps saying "Invalid PIN, please try again"

March 16, 2019 358 views
Security
samwilson
By:
samwilson

I am unable to re-enable two-factor authentication on my account.

After getting a new phone, I logged in with a back-up code and disabled 2FA. Now, every time I try to re-enable it, I get the "Invalid PIN, please try again." error (error response is code: 'InvalidArgument', desc: 'failed to validate authenticator 2FA method').

Am I doing something wrong?

1 comment
  • axelpale March 24, 2019

    Same here, but the phone is not even new. Suddenly Google Authenticator's codes just stopped working. Thus I tried to re-enable 2FA which led finally this "Invalid PIN, please try again" problem.

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1 Answer
jarland MOD March 26, 2019
Accepted Answer

Greetings!

This can occur if your time/date is not synchronized on your device, as this is part of the algorithm. The steps to set this may be different per device, but as an example I will explain how to do it with my Pixel 3 (Android):

  1. Go to Settings app
  2. Go to System
  3. Go to Date & Time
  4. Enable "Automatic date & time"

Jarland

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