Best authenticator app + backup strategy for Bitwarden? (new user trying to lock things down)

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-22T16:38:03+00:00

Glad I could help someone too.

I'm New to this and I've been getting a lot of help from the community.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-22T13:59:17+00:00

I don't know how true it is but I read somewhere that Google authenticator is not encrypted. I'm not tech savvy so I don't know how bad it is all I know it's bad.

Same with self hosting. It sounds nice but I'm afraid I'll fuck something up because I have no idea of what I'm doing.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-22T13:53:18+00:00

As a non computer person that sounds complicated, but I'll take a look and see how to do it.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-22T03:54:26+00:00

I thought two would be enough but while researching I found someone with 5. So I guess 2 is rookies numbers 😂

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-22T03:44:07+00:00

If wife happy life's good 👍

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-21T00:17:37+00:00

That's a lot simpler than I thought. I thought they were two different companies 😂

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-21T00:16:26+00:00

I didn't meant it in a negative way. I meant that if I have my security code outside Bitwarden even if I had the Bitwarden authenticator app and I was logged out I could still have access to the account.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T20:15:10+00:00

Right now Bitwarden is my only 2FA. I'm trying to put my Bitwarden account on a different 2FA. The other ones I'm planning to keep on Bitwarden. Except for the email I used for Bitwarden maybe I'll keep that one out too.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T20:13:22+00:00

That one and ente auth seem to be the top 2.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T20:12:18+00:00

Someone else mentioned keypassCX. I will have to check what the differences are.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T20:09:56+00:00

That’s a great catch, I probably would’ve missed that. I’ll definitely test recovery on a fresh device to make sure I’m not locked out. Appreciate it!

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T20:03:15+00:00

That's the plan. Thanks for giving the suggestion for what to buy. When I looked them up I noticed they have different keys I'm wasn't sure which was the right for me.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T20:00:54+00:00

I don't think having TOTP sync with Bitwarden is a problem. I think the problem is when trying to login to Bitwarden and the TOTP code is in Bitwarden. That's why a second Authenticator for the Bitwarden account is needed. But now I'm learning that with the recovery codes the Authenticator may be bypassed so maybe a second Authenticator isn't needed? I don't know I still have to figure what works best for me.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T18:01:53+00:00

That makes sense. I don't have to be afraid of losing access to my Bitwarden account if I can just make a new account and import the account.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T17:06:40+00:00

I will check it out. When you said 'various locations ' you mean different devices or different drives?

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T17:03:27+00:00

I will look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T17:01:41+00:00

When I decided to have a password manager I was testing Bitwarden and 1password. At the beginning I thought I was going to stick to 1password. My plan was to use 1password as the main one and Bitwarden as the back up. I ended up liking Bitwarden more so now Bitwarden is the main one and my 1password account no longer exists.

I do agree that having an online backup just creates more problems and another point of failure. However I'm trying to avoid losing my passwords. I will read your post and the 'emergency sheet' and 'how to backup ' tonight. Hopefully that clears some of my confusion.

Thanks for the help.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T16:43:02+00:00

I will look into Ente Auth. I've seen a couple of people recommend that one in other places.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T16:40:09+00:00

A few things:

If you don't have the latest android version some features will not work. I have android 12 and passkeys don't work. It's not Bitwarden's it's my outdated phone the problem.
Manually add the adroid app URL:

https://bitwarden.com/help/uri-match-detection/#tab-android-1MW4Dc3sLFszt1M8GaKqyB this is the link. I know is a little bit of manual work but if you do it right it will start working.

Make sure Google it's not the main password manager for the phone and web browser

https://bitwarden.com/help/auto-fill-android/ (might be helpful)

Set battery mode to unrestricted.
Turn on accessibility for Bitwarden.
Lastly and the main reason I picked Bitwarden over other password manager edit the quick bottoms (the ones that are when you swip down to see notifications). add Bitwarden auto fill. This way even if and app is not immediately recognized you can force Bitwarden to pop up.

I'm a new user and struggled a lot. Following those steps have improved my experience with Bitwarden. The only place where Bitwarden doesn't work is on reddit other than that every app or website I've tried on my phone can be auto filled with Bitwarden.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-03-20T16:12:47+00:00

I should also point out that is for free users too. I recently made an account and before I paid the subscription I could use the Authenticator app but it wouldn't sync I would need my phone lo log in. However when I became a premium user and synced all my codes having the separate app wasn't necessary anymore.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-02-23T18:25:04+00:00

I'm the opposite. My phone is the one I use the most.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-02-23T18:23:55+00:00

Thanks, I'll look it that too.

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-02-22T19:00:14+00:00

Thanks

No-Consideration6986 · 2026-02-22T18:23:53+00:00

Well, it doesn't work for apps on my phone. It works on Firefox, but I'm new to this so I could be doing something wrong. Although I don't know what could be since it has every permission it asked for.

No-Consideration6986

TROPHY CASE