2STP FAQ

2STP Authenticator is the 2-step authenticator app designed for iOS, watchOS, and macOS.

It works with any service that supports Google Authenticator, with features like a native Apple Watch app, Safari Extension, Notification Center widget and more.

Important: Support for 2STP Authenticator has ended. It is no longer available for download from the App Store as of September 28th, and no further updates are planned. For more information, see the 2STP End of Support FAQ.

2STP Companion is a Mac app that works alongside 2STP Authenticator for iOS to display your codes in your Mac's Notification Center.

See the 2STP Companion FAQ for more details.

Important: Support for 2STP Companion has ended, but it is still available for download. No further updates are planned. For more information, see the 2STP End of Support FAQ.

2STP iCloud Sync is an optional feature that keeps your account data up-to-date across all your iOS devices, and is also used for 2STP Companion. iCloud Sync works by storing an encrypted copy of your account data in your iCloud account, which is automatically synced between devices.

See the iCloud Sync FAQ for more details.

Most codes are time-sensitive. Make sure your device's clock is set correctly. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and try toggling Set Automatically on. If it's already on, turn it off and on again to force a resync.

If there are still issues, try re-entering the account information and make sure that it is correct.

2STP might behave strangely if the clock is changed while the app is still running. If codes aren't updating, or other strange behavior occurs, force quit 2STP by double pressing the Home button to access the multitasking view and swiping up. Then, relaunch 2STP.

If 2STP doesn't show up on your paired Apple Watch, go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and enable 2STP.

All accounts configured in 2STP for iOS will automatically appear on the 2STP Watch App. You may need to complete an initial sync, depending on the version of 2STP you have running. Simply follow the instructions on your Watch to get started.

The watchOS app should only ask to sync when the app is first installed or after watchOS updates. If you are being asked to sync every few days or so, you may be affected by a bug with watchOS that results in an incomplete install of the 2STP Watch App, which prevents data from being saved to the Watch.

Try the following steps to perform a clean install of the Watch app, which should fix this issue:

1. Open the 2STP Watch App, and press firmly on the display. Tap Settings, scroll down and tap "Reset Watch Data", and confirm.

2. On the Apple Watch home screen, press and hold the 2STP icon until it goes into editing mode, then uninstall the 2STP Watch App. Wait until the icon disappears.

3. Open the Apple Watch management app on your iPhone, go to 2STP, and make sure that the “Show on Apple Watch” switch is in the off position. Then, enable "Show on Apple Watch".

4. Wait until the app finishes installing on the Watch, then try syncing again.

5. Force quit the app by pressing and holding the side button until the power off slider appears, then let go and press and hold the side button again until you return to the home screen. Relaunch the app and confirm that you don't need to sync again.

If the app does not ask you to sync again after it is force quit, then the issue should be fixed, and you should not be asked to sync again unless you uninstall the Watch app or upgrade watchOS.

This indicates that for whatever reason, the Watch app isn't installed correctly.

First, make sure you're running the latest version of watchOS and seeing if that fixes the issue.

Otherwise, please try the following steps in order:

1. Turn your iPhone and Apple Watch off and on again.

2. Uninstall the 2STP Watch App from the Apple Watch home screen and wait for the icon to disappear. Then, uninstall the 2STP app from your iPhone.

3. Turn your iPhone and Apple Watch off and on again.

4. Reinstall 2STP from the App Store.

5. Wait for the Apple Watch app to finish installing, then try launching the 2STP Watch App again.

Yeah, it would be pretty great! Unfortunately such a feature won't be possible with the way Apple has implemented Complications, since codes change every 30 seconds, and complications can only update every few minutes at most. In the meanwhile, you can set a favorite account as a Glance to get approximately the same experience.

Navigate to a page that contains a field for a 2-step authentication code. Tap the Share button (looks like an arrow pointing up out of a rectangle), then tap the 2STP icon. If you don't see the 2STP icon, scroll all the way to the right in the bottom row, tap "More" and enable it.

Tap the correct account, and the code should be auto-filled.

Since there isn't a standard way to indicate a 2-step code field, the app tries its best to guess and choose the most likely candidate. However, this might not work on certain sites.

Even if auto-fill doesn't work, you can still manually select the correct field and paste the code in.

Your account data is securely stored in the Keychain, which is not cleared when you delete the app.

The data stored in the Keychain does not take up much space at all (generally only a couple of kilobytes) and cannot be accessed by other apps, but if you are concerned, tap More > Settings > Reset All Data to clear the data stored in the Keychain before deleting the app.

Note that this only resets the data stored on your device. If you have enabled iCloud Sync, you will need to first Reset iCloud Data in the iCloud Sync settings to clear data stored in iCloud.

2STP only works correctly with accounts that use 30 seconds as the period.

If a QR code is scanned that indicates a custom period, it is ignored and 30 seconds is used instead.

All your account data is stored securely on an encrypted area of your device known as the Keychain. However, there is a rarely-occurring bug in iOS where apps can randomly lose access to the Keychain. If this message appears, you'll need to tap "Force Quit" and restart the app.

Yes. You can use the URL scheme com.thomas.twostep:// to open 2STP from a launcher-type app.