Say you have accidentally removed your authenticator or bought a new phone and can no longer access your one time code to login to VFF Connect, what can be done?
Some people might have created an account with Authy or Ente, in which case on reinstall they can simply login to that app and it’ll restore their Authenticator. In the case you’ve forgotten your account details or otherwise wish to start anew you will first have to lodge a request to have your authenticator removed, or as in the image below, remove it yourself in Keycloak.
Section I: Resetting it yourself
Warning, this assumes you still happen to be logged into VFF Connect and Admidio, skip if you are not already logged in.
First head to Admidio and on the left hand sidebar click “SSO Password Change” which will redirect you to Keycloak. Following this, at the bottom of the page it will have a section called Two Factor Authentication, followed by the name of your device when you first set up your authenticator and on the right side of that is a large rectangular red button saying “Remove”. 99% of the time this should remove it, the other 1% might cause global nuclear devastation, use at your own peril. In the case it succeeded and you don’t see mushroom clouds outside your window it’ll refresh your page and now in the place of the big red button is one that says “Set Up Authenticator”. Click this and it’ll ask you to enter your password followed by the Multi-Factor Authentication Setup page from when you were first trained as a coordinator. Now skip to section three for how to set up your coordinator.
Section II: Remote authenticator reset
In the case you cannot login and need your authenticator reset, you will have to forward a request to tech support in the form below. Within 24 hours you should get confirmation it has been reset and can now move onto section three.
Section III: Two-Factor Authentication Setup
Many have been initially set up with Authy and while the setup screen also recommends Google Authenticator among others, we recommend using Ente Auth now because of their desktop application support.
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ente-auth/id6444121398
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.ente.auth&hl=en_NZ
Once installed you will be greeted with ente Authenticator followed by 3 options, New to Ente, Existing User and “Use without backups”. It’s not required to click New to Ente, though if you want to have a backup to restore from if you lose your phone or accidentally uninstall the app, you can press this which’ll guide you through setting up an account – but we will assume you pressed “Use without backups”. From here on out I cannot use screenshots to demonstrate due to security policy, but follow along.
You will now be greeted with a setup your first account screen, simply click “Scan a QR code”, approve the permission request (on Android this is “Allow Ente Auth to take pictures and record video”, press “While using this app”) and then point the phone at the QR code on the screen. Now it’ll display a time revolving six digit code along with something like “VFF Coords Login: yourlogin”. The six digit code changes every 30 seconds, so before entering the code put in the device name – which can be anything, as long as you can recognize it. Then enter the code and you will be logged back in. Keep in mind this won’t work if your timezone is out of sync. Another FAQ is dedicated to this issue.