I'm planning on getting a new phone in the next few months. I'm a windows 10 hold out. One of the main reasons holding me back besides finances right now, is the microsoft authenticator app, which I use very heavily for personal and work. I probably have over 20 accounts setup.
I know I will have to disable and setup TFA again for all those accounts on on a new app with whatever device I ultimately end up with. But I'm wondering. In the future going from android to android device, is there an easier way to migrate authenticator apps?
I've never used the Microsoft app but I think it uses a standard method similar to Google Authenticator and others:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_One-time_Password_algorithm
You might be able, somehow, to export the secret key and other parameters (these could be common defaults).
But I bet apps don't allow that easily in order to protect it from unintended disclosure.
Maybe there's a way to sync to an online Microsoft account, and from there sync the new phone? Microsoft Authenticator is available also on Android.
What I do when adding the info for a new account is write down the secret key, and any other parameters, in a password manager. From there they can be entered into other apps, or used directly.
hkjo said:
I've never used the Microsoft app but I think it uses a standard method similar to Google Authenticator and others:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_One-time_Password_algorithm
You might be able, somehow, to export the secret key and other parameters (these could be common defaults).
But I bet apps don't allow that easily in order to protect it from unintended disclosure.
Maybe there's a way to sync to an online Microsoft account, and from there sync the new phone? Microsoft Authenticator is available also on Android.
What I do when adding the info for a new account is write down the secret key, and any other parameters, in a password manager. From there they can be entered into other apps, or used directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it uses the same method as the Google app. I don't have any loyalty to the Microsoft app, that's just what was available for me on Windows. But sadly, no they don't have any MSA sync feature, otherwise I would gladly keep using the Microsoft app on when I do make the switch. I do jot down the secret key or the extra one use passwords when available, but there are several that don't offer one and you just take a picture of the QR code. Or at least, I didn't notice it.
But mainly my question is: Is there an authenticator app, be it google or some other brand that will actually migrate the TFA stuff from device to device. I've gotten so used to using TFA but now that I have so many accounts, it's a task I dread, having to deactivate and reactivate TFA just because I need to upgrade my device.
Here's one password manager that's supposed to support TOTP:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=keepass2android.keepass2android
It's probably more complex to use than stuff like MS/Google Authenticator.
A short search on the web suggests even Google Authenticator doesn't have a simple way to export/import or sync across devices.
But there are other suggestions here:
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/63252/how-do-i-back-up-google-authenticator
Related
One of the sorely (and inexplicably) missing features of Android is the ability to seamlessly integrate Contacts w/ Calendar and vice versa. What I mean is to be able to create a Calendar Event and automatically add People to it, creating a link which may be accessed at a future date.
So far, I am aware of only two Market Apps which provide this functionality, although neither is perfect:
DejaOffice
Contact Event
Is anyone aware of others? I don't mind paid apps if they actually work.
P.S., Windows Mobile 7 does this seamlessly. Have no idea why Google refuses to. I say "refuses" because the integration would be so simple they MUST be leaving it out on purpose for reasons known only to them.
My employer just opened up Android native email capability (to receive work email, calendar, apps) for my Note i717. Problem is, they won't allow Rooted devices.
I know there's several (6 I think) security certificates that get installed, but I was wondering if there's a way around this no-root rule.
1. If I unroot, get all certificates installed and then re-root will it nullify the certs?
2. Does anyone know enough about certs to answer if they're something that can be backed up and restored if I move to a different ROM in the future?
I've scoured the forum and have found info on bypassing the credential logins, but not pertaining to these questions above. Answers would be greatly appreciated.
It isn't really a rule...depending on your environment
b3furuya said:
My employer just opened up Android native email capability (to receive work email, calendar, apps) for my Note i717. Problem is, they won't allow Rooted devices.
I know there's several (6 I think) security certificates that get installed, but I was wondering if there's a way around this no-root rule.
1. If I unroot, get all certificates installed and then re-root will it nullify the certs?
2. Does anyone know enough about certs to answer if they're something that can be backed up and restored if I move to a different ROM in the future?
I've scoured the forum and have found info on bypassing the credential logins, but not pertaining to these questions above. Answers would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless your company is using a type of MDM platform (Codeproof, Good, MobileIron, AppSense), they will not be able to detect that you have root access to your phone. Some companies instruct users to install a separate MDM application in order to access their email. Most Exchange servers can be connected to without installing the MDM software. If they don't force an MDM client, they won't know you are rooted.
Depending on the version of Exchange, you can use a 3rd party email app like K-9 to access the email which would also bypass the additional security policies that will be installed if you were using the built-in Exchange support. I use Touchdown, therefore the app is protected by a PIN but not my phone, so I can still unlock the phone without having to type a 6 digit number every, single, time.
The way I see it, the company's data is still protected, and I am not overly inconvenienced, it is a win-win.
Unless your company is using a type of MDM platform (Codeproof, Good, MobileIron, AppSense), they will not be able to detect that you have root access to your phone. Some companies instruct users to install a separate MDM application in order to access their email. Most Exchange servers can be connected to without installing the MDM software. If they don't force an MDM client, they won't know you are rooted.
Depending on the version of Exchange, you can use a 3rd party email app like K-9 to access the email which would also bypass the additional security policies that will be installed if you were using the built-in Exchange support. I use Touchdown, therefore the app is protected by a PIN but not my phone, so I can still unlock the phone without having to type a 6 digit number every, single, time.
The way I see it, the company's data is still protected, and I am not overly inconvenienced, it is a win-win.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apologies, I did forget to mention they instruct to install Mobile-Iron.
Their process is such:
1. Install Mobile-Iron
2. Encrypt Device & set 6 digit pin
3. Install Certificates
4. Email configuration
5. Sync email, calendar, clients to phone
They do note "If your device is rooted, this process will not complete successfully."
Reviewing the steps, it looks like the whole process is done within Mobile-Iron.
No dice so far
Still can't find anything on the net for this. If anyone can help answer this I'd greatly appreciate it.
I'd love to be able to check on emails without having to open and boot my laptop. Also, it would be great to have my calendar sync so I don't miss meetings.
Hello,
I was wondering if there is a password manager out there which can be stored on a flashdrive so that I can plug it in to log into my PC among other applications and websites?
I have never used a password manager before, and since recent scandals involving password theft, I feel like a lot of people are posting about the benefits of a password manager, so I felt I should try a password manager as well. I want to go the whole nine yards though. I want an immersive experience to REALLY get a feel of whether or not I will use a password manager, so I want to change everything, including my google password and Microsoft password, and let my password manager handle keeping them.
However, my Microsoft password is linked to my PC, so my computer password changes when my Microsoft account password changes. If I change it to some randomly generated strong password I would not remember it and would depend entirely on the password manager, which is why I want to know if there is a portable application that can log into my PC for me as well.
Also, my google account is linked to my phone, and it keeps record of my call history, text messages, and contacts. These are things I want to be retained whenever I get a new phone, factory reset my current phone, or clean install a custom ROM, so is there a password manager that handles this as well? The problem with apps is the fact that we need Google Play Store to download and install them officially, and we need a google account to access Google Play Store. I know that I can sideload an apk from my computer to my phone, but let's say I get a new phone at Best Buy and just CAN'T wait to get home and start using it. When I boot up it'll ask for my Google account so it can restore my contacts at the very least, but I'd be dependent on my password manager and will not be able to login without it. Is there something I can do that will allow me to login immediately upon turning on this shiny new device?
I've tried Dashlane, they don't have a remedy for the things above, and it seems like most password managers do not. On top of Dashlane's android overlay doesn't pop up when adding a google account, whether it just be for gmail or other google services. I am pretty sure that my request is a stretch, and if so, I'll probably just continue to manually type in my own passwords, but I figured I'd ask and see if anyone knew of an app that might do what I want or is migrating in that direction.
Thanks,
Weilun
Since almost everything I do is on a tablet or desktop I had no idea when I was asked this question recently. So I started looking and found nothing that did not hook into Android contracts which sync online or the database is not protected from any app searching it.
So I'm asking the community. What is the best dialer and contacts app for Android.
Something that does not..
Connect to the internet for number lookup or sync
Does not use the Android contacts database or at least encrypts anything it saves there
Zero internet access preferred.
nutpants said:
Since almost everything I do is on a tablet or desktop I had no idea when I was asked this question recently. So I started looking and found nothing that did not hook into Android contracts which sync online or the database is not protected from any app searching it.
So I'm asking the community. What is the best dialer and contacts app for Android.
Something that does not..
Connect to the internet for number lookup or sync
Does not use the Android contacts database or at least encrypts anything it saves there
Zero internet access preferred.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's not exactly what you were looking for but I used to use Flock Sync (from Open Whisper Sys) on my private phone, unfortunately they have stopped development but as it was open source you should be able to find the apk and as you can set up your own server it should still work, though don't know about new nougat ROM's.
Original press release
https://whispersystems.org/blog/flock/
There is also at least one alternative called Cucumber Sync or maybe consider Owncloud or similar?
However apps like Flock are not much use if you are trying to keep all your contacts private from the likes of Google or the state as most of your friends will just sync YOUR details to Google/Apple/etc, furthermore the likes of Google could quickly make a fairly accurate assumption that you would know some other contacts that did also use apps like Flock as they would be able to easily build a network of each of those Flock users contacts 99% of which did sync, pick out common contacts with you and make an assumption you probably know the other Flock user. And of course as soon as you make a phone call or send a msg, email etc your network provider and others would be able to tell you are in contact, so not much use if you are trying to hid from the big boys! That said it does offer another layer of security/privacy in normal scenarios ......
With Android 11, Google seems to have taken yet another step in the "making Android increasingly painful to use" direction by disabling the ability for device-only contacts to be available via the standard Contacts Provider. Because of this, I have to use Google-stored contacts on my Android 11 device in order for these contacts to be available to my apps. Otherwise, my apps don't see any contacts.
I have a rooted Android 11 device, and I'm hoping that there is some way that I could disable the standard Contacts Provider service and that I could then install an alternate, custom Contacts Provider service which knows how to access device-only contacts, and which knows how to make these contacts available to all apps that need contacts ... and which never will try to store my contacts on any of Google's servers nor anywhere else in the cloud.
Is it possible to disable Android's standard Contacts Provider service? And does such a 3rd-party Contacts Provider service exist?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.
Well, I think I found a solution to the issue that I'm trying to solve. And it doesn't require any new Contacts Provider service to be installed, after all.
First of all, I made sure that contacts syncing is turned off.
Next, I installed the "True Phone" contacts and phone manager app from the play store and made it my default phone app.
Then, I used that program to make a local backup of my contacts, which is one of its capabilities.
Following that, I froze the Contacts app, but I kept the Contacts Storage app active. I checked the permissions for the Contacts Storage app, and I see now that it has no network-related permssions. So apparently, it just looks at the local contacts database, and some other piece of software is what actually syncs Google's cloud-based contacts data with the local database. And by turning off contacts sync-ing, it seems like I have indeed disabled that process.
Then, I went from my desktop computer to http://contacts.google.com with the same login credentials that are associated with my Android device. I then permanently deleted all of the contacts there.
(I rebooted my Android device between each of these steps and also after the final step.)
Now, my SMS and phone apps still see the contacts info in my local database. And I can manage the local contacts backup and restore via that True Phone app.
There are probably other phone/contacts apps which also could be used for this. But True Phone works well enough for me.
So ... it turns out that no OS surgery is needed to mess with the contacts nor to install an alternate Contacts Provider service.
PS: And I now have learned something. I was asking about a "Contacts Provider service", but I now realize that the standard Contacts Storage app itself seems to be the "Contacts Provider".
And because I found out that this app does not even have network permissions, it seems clear that this app simply gets contacts from the locally stored sqlite contacts database, and therefore, I don't need to replace this app with anything else.
And so all I needed to do was disable contacts sync-ing, because that is what would sync contacts between Google's cloud and the local contacts database.
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
blackhawk said:
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me around a day of on-and-off playing around sessions to figure this all out ... with some input from a few other helpful souls.
I agree about cloud-based services. I don't even use gmail. I run my own email server, so I use that to manage all my email accounts. I manage my own web servers and my own DNS servers, as well.
It's more work for me to manage those things, but I don't mind, and I actually enjoy that work, most of the time.