Salesforce Authenticator Troubleshooting

Can’t log in and need immediate assistance
Salesforce Authenticator not remembering your location
Salesforce Authenticator is slow to respond, or Approval button is not displayed
New phone, or new installation of Salesforce Authenticator

Can’t log in and need immediate assistance:

• Contact your Salesforce administrator. The Salesforce administrator is someone at your company that will have additional permissions and perform the configuration tasks to set up your Salesforce instance.

• If they can’t help you, contact Salesforce support.

• See Troubleshoot Login Issues for more help with Salesforce Logins.

Salesforce Authenticator not remembering your location:

• Ensure 'Location Services' is set to "Always" and 'Background App Refresh’ is enabled in iOS, or Enable Improve Location Accuracy in Location Services in Android. See Automate Multi-Factor Authentication with Salesforce Authenticator for more help.
• Ask your Salesforce Administrator if automation is configured to only work on certain networks.
• Remove all previously trusted locations, and re-add them.
• Please make sure that the feature "Let Salesforce Authenticator automatically verify identities using geolocation" is enabled and "Let Salesforce Authenticator automatically verify identities based on trusted IP addresses only" feature in Identity Verification is disabled in Setup.
• Please note, the following criteria must be met for the auto-approval to take place:
  1. Same user
  2. Same action (login, download reports, add new verifier, etc)
  3. Same device (browser)
  4. Same location (within 100M)
• For more troubleshooting tips, see Optimize and Troubleshoot Automation in Salesforce Authenticator.
  
  Salesforce Authenticator is slow to respond, or Approval button is not displayed:

• Check your phone’s network connection. Slow Wi-Fi or cellular connections will affect the speed of push notifications.

• On the Salesforce Check Your Mobile Device page, tap “Having Trouble?" and then tap "Use a Different Verification Method." Enter the 6-digit code from Salesforce Authenticator. This works even when your phone is offline.

New phone, lost phone, or new installation of Salesforce Authenticator:

• If you previously backed up your connected accounts, you can restore your configuration. See Restore Connected Accounts in the Salesforce Authenticator Mobile App to learn how.

• If necessary, remove the account from Salesforce Authenticator, re-configure Salesforce Authenticator, and then (optionally) turn on backup.  Information to configure Salesforce Authenticator to your mobile device is available in Connect your Salesforce Account to Salesforce Authenticator.
• If your phone is lost or stolen or have a new phone where the previous phone is not available, please follow the steps in the Immediate Assistance section.  Your Salesforce Administrator can remove the connection from the inaccessible phone.  Please contact Salesforce Support if the Salesforce Administrator is not able to assist.

Note: Authenticators are not paired with phone numbers, but devices. When a device is changed, the new authenticator/device doesn't know about any connections, so you are presented with a two-word phrase to set up a new connection.  Since there is already a connection within Salesforce (remember that the old phone or device still has a connection with us), we ask for that connection. We request a two-word phrase when there is no connection, and that is why the Salesforce Admin should remove the old connection. 

On the reverse scenario, when Salesforce is asking for a two-word phrase, there is some connection on the Authenticator to an old account, a sandbox account, or a different account.  The account being signed in to does have not the Authenticator connection.  The connection needs to be added.
 

See
Remove an Account from Salesforce Authenticator
Connect your Salesforce Account to Salesforce Authenticator
Back Up Your Connected Accounts in the Salesforce Authenticator Mobile App for more information.
Restore Connected Accounts in the Salesforce Authenticator Mobile AppUse Salesforce Authenticator with Your Other Accounts

Still need help?

• Get help with Salesforce Authenticator.
  See also:  How to Use Salesforce Authenticator for MFA Logins

• Watch the video, How MFA Works to Protect Account Access