Transfer Connected Accounts in the Salesforce Authenticator Mobile App

Note Starting with app version 4.0, Salesforce Authenticator uses your email address to back up and restore your accounts. Older app versions use your mobile number instead. If you’re running an app version below 4.0, see Use Your Mobile Number to Back Up and Restore Your Accounts in Salesforce Authenticator. We recommend always running the latest version of the app.

The back up and transfer feature is available if you have a Salesforce ecosystem account connected to the app. These accounts make up the Salesforce ecosystem.

• Salesforce.com
• Commerce Cloud
• Heroku
• Sales Cloud
• Marketing Cloud
• MuleSoft
• Quip
• Tableau

Note We use the term Salesforce ecosystem accounts to refer to accounts that support all Salesforce Authenticator features. This list doesn't include all Salesforce-related accounts. For example, this list doesn't include Slack even though it's a Salesforce company.

Before you begin:

• To transfer backed-up accounts, you need your backup passcode. You also need access to the email address or mobile number that you verified when you created the backup. If you forgot your passcode or you can’t access your verified email address or mobile number, see Troubleshoot Issues with Restoring Your Accounts in Salesforce Authenticator.
• Your connected accounts remain active on only one device at a time. If you transfer backed-up accounts to a new device, you can no longer use the accounts on the previous device.
• You can’t transfer backups on a device that already has connected accounts.
• Custom connection names, requests set for automatic approval, custom usernames, and the sort order of your connections aren’t preserved. These settings return to their initial values. You can rename and resort your connected accounts after you transfer them.

I installed Salesforce Authenticator on a new device, and I have access to my old device.

Use your old device to transfer your accounts.

1. Open the Salesforce Authenticator app.
2. For the prompt that asks if it's your first time connecting an account to Salesforce Authenticator, select No.
3. For the prompt that asks if you have access to a different mobile device where you previously used Salesforce Authenticator, select Yes.
4. Follow the prompt to enable backups and set up a backup passcode on your old device, and then tap Next.
5. Select an option to transfer your accounts.
   • If you created your backup using your email address, tap Restore with Email Address.
   • If you created your backup using your mobile number, tap Restore with Mobile Number (SMS), then switch to this knowledge article for the remaining steps.
6. When prompted, enter your email address and tap Send Code.
   Authenticator sends you an email with a one-time, six-digit verification code.
7. Find the verification code in the email you received. In Salesforce Authenticator, enter the code and tap Verify.
   

   Tip If you’re viewing the email on the same device as the Authenticator app, instead of manually entering the code, you can tap the code in the email message to reopen the app. When you tap the link, your device asks for authorization to open the Salesforce Authenticator app.

   • Android: if prompted to select which app to open the link with, tap Salesforce Authenticator from the list. If your web browser opens, tap Open Salesforce Authenticator.
   • iOS: when asked for permission to open Salesforce Authenticator, tap Open.
8. Enter your backup passcode.
   

   Warning For security reasons, if you enter the wrong passcode 10 times, your backup is permanently erased.
9. Enable permissions for Salesforce Authenticator.
10. Follow the prompts to re-enable backups on your new device.
    When you see your connected accounts, the transfer process is complete.

Note

When you transfer your connected accounts, your encrypted TOTP data is stored on Salesforce servers. Salesforce handles this data in compliance with our privacy policy. During backup and transfer events, you use your passcode to verify that you own the backed-up accounts.