My password manager locked me out on the worst possible day

Last Tuesday I was sitting in a rest stop outside Flagstaff trying to submit my weekly log and time card, and my password manager decided to do an update that wiped my local vault. I had the master password in my head but the 2FA app had reset itself during a phone update the night before. So there I sat, locked out of 40 plus accounts, including my bank and my fuel card portal. The recovery codes were in my email, which I could not get into because that password was also in the vault. Took me three hours on hold with support and answering security questions from 2015 before I got back in. Now I keep a physical card in my wallet with the recovery codes written down, and I test the 2FA backup codes every few months. Has anyone else had a lockout that wrecked their whole day? What is your backup plan that actually works when everything goes sideways?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

annajenkins4d ago

Yep been there with a vault wipe right before a deadline, now I keep a laminated paper with all the critical backup codes in my glovebox and my wallet, and I do a test login on my phone once a month to make sure the 2FA app actually syncs.

3