To learn more about 2FA, see a Wikipedia article about it.

When you enroll in 2FA, you receive a list of ten recovery codes. Print or download those codes and store them in a safe place. If you lose access to your authenticator apps or security keys, you will need these codes to regain access to your account.

If you think you've lost the codes, don't panic. You can access them at any time on Special:AccountSecurity.

Each recovery code is single use: after you use it once, it is no longer valid. If you use a code, go to Special:AccountSecurity and generate a new set of codes, so you don't run out.

Users who have added a passkey can now log in without entering their username or password (passwordless login). Clicking in the username field will display their passkey as an option to log in with.

To add a passkey:

If you don't enable 2FA, some of your login attempts may require email verification. This type of verification requires you to enter a code sent to the email address associated with your wiki account. You can't opt out of this security feature, which protects user accounts from unauthorized access. However, if you enable 2FA, you won't be asked for email verification since 2FA is a stronger level of protection.

Enabling 2FA for your user account may impact your ability to log in to bot accounts or tools. Use OAuth or bot passwords to restrict API sessions to specific actions, while still using 2FA to protect access to your main user account.

For example, tools like AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) don't support 2FA, but can use bot passwords.

If you have an existing 2FA device which has stopped generating correct codes, check that its clock is accurate. Time-based one-time password (TOTP) on Wikimedia wikis may fail due to a time difference of just 2 minutes.

If you still have access to any device or authentication method you registered for 2FA, use that to log in.

If you no longer have access to any of your authentication methods, use one of your recovery codes: on the two-factor login page, instead of entering a code from your authentication device, click the button to use recovery codes. Enter one of the codes you downloaded when you enabled 2FA.

After you successfully log in, register a new 2FA method before you disable the ones associated with your lost device.

If you think you've lost the codes but can log in, go to Special:AccountSecurity and print or download the codes again and store them in a safe place.

If you don't have recovery codes and are unable to complete two-step authentication, you can attempt to recover access by asking the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) support desk to remove 2FA from your account. You should only make this request as a last resort; WMF doesn't guarantee account recovery in this situation.

To file a support request:

If you can't log in to your Developer account, see the documentation on wikitech for instructions on how to request 2FA removal.

If you got a new phone or want to use a different device for 2FA, add your new device before you remove your old one:

To use passkeys, you must first enable 2FA with a security key or an authenticator app. If you have already enabled 2FA, and the button to "Add a passkey" on Special:AccountSecurity is gray or inactive, you may be using an incompatible browser or operating system. To use passkeys, you must use one of the following options:

• Use an operating system with a built-in password manager, like Windows (Windows Hello) or macOS (iCloud Keychain).
• Use password manager in your browser, like Google Password Manager in Chrome.
• Install a third-party password manager that can handle passkeys (like 1Password, Bitwarden, or LastPass).

If you don't have any of those options installed, or if you use an old version of your browser or operating system, you cannot use passkeys, and the button will be grayed out for you.

This is most commonly an issue for users of Firefox on Linux. Neither Firefox nor Linux has a built-in password manager, so the only way users of Firefox on Linux can use passkeys is by installing a third-party password manager, like 1Password, Bitwarden, or LastPass.

If you don't have a separate device to use for 2FA, you can use apps like WinAuth, Authenticator, and KeeWeb to handle 2FA tokens on many computers. This is the recommended way to enable 2FA if you don't have a smartphone or tablet computer.

If you currently use a password manager, check whether it supports 2FA. (Your password manager may also refer to 2FA as "OTP" or "TOTP".) Using your current password manager for 2FA is easier than setting up a new 2FA app.

Note: If you normally edit with your desktop computer, using a desktop 2FA app is slightly less secure than using a mobile 2FA app, as someone with access to both your computer and your password would still be able to log in to your account.

Some platforms allow users to use a mobile phone number. These users receive a text or a messaging app message with a code to authenticate. We have no plans to support 2FA over SMS or similar solutions.

The private wikis are not connected with the Wikimedia global account, unlike Wikipedias or Meta. For this reason, to have 2FA there, you need to set it up on each private wiki separately, in addition to 2FA for your Wikimedia global account.

Reusing 2FA methods is not like reusing passwords:

• It is encouraged to set up the same baseline and fallback 2FA methods on each private wiki.
• It is encouraged to add passkeys from the same providers or on the same devices on each private wiki.
  • You can add as many of these as you like, from as many devices or providers as you like.
  • If you have the option of using a passkey that synchronizes (e.g., a 1Password cloud account or a Google account), you can keep using the same passkeys even if you change out your device, without having to go reset them all.