500px 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app

500px is the photography community where you post your work, enter Quests and, through Licensing, sell your photos. Its two-factor authentication (2FA) is optional, and 500px presents it as extra protection for your payment and password settings. The only method its help describes is an authenticator app of your choice, with Google Authenticator and Authy given as examples (500px). This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone, but any authenticator app works the same way.

How we checked this guide: the 500px steps come from 500px's own help center, linked below, which we read on October 24, 2026. The live help pages turn away automated visitors, so we read archived copies on web.archive.org: the setup article and its screenshot as saved on February 11, 2026, and the other articles as saved between September and October 2025. 500px may have changed its screens since then, so a label may differ. We haven't tested any of this on a 500px account. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.

First, give your account a password

500px wants your account to have its own password before you set up 2FA. If you joined with Facebook, Google or Apple, you may never have made one, so create it first in your account's Security Settings (500px).

Turn on 2FA with an authenticator app

500px's setup article, in the February 2026 copy, gives these steps (500px):

1. On the 500px website, open your account's Security Settings. The article links straight to that page, which opens once you're signed in.
2. Click the toggle to the right of Two-factor authentication.
3. Enter your password and click Confirm and continue.
4. A window titled Enable two-factor authentication shows a QR code. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at it. If 500px is open on the same iPhone, take a screenshot and use Choose a photo instead. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
5. Type the 6-digit code from Novaz in the 6-digit code field and click Enable.
6. Copy or download your backup codes, then click Done.

The screenshot shows a Can't scan the code? link under the QR code, but the help doesn't say what it reveals. If it gives you a text key, you can add it in Novaz with +, then Enter key manually: write 500px as the Service and the key as the Setup key (What is a 2FA setup key?). 500px doesn't say how often its codes change, though, so scanning the QR code is the safer choice, since it carries those settings to your app.

Don't skip the backup codes

The last step lets you click Done without saving anything (500px). 500px's help doesn't say how many codes you get, whether each works once, or whether you can make new ones later, so treat that screen as your one chance. Novaz keeps its keys on your iPhone unless you make a Novaz backup, so these codes are your fallback if the phone is gone without one. Keep them in a password manager or on paper. More in 2FA backup codes.

When 500px asks for a code

The help pages don't show the sign-in step itself. They mention three other moments when 500px wants the 6-digit code from your authenticator app:

• Resetting your password. If 500px asks for a 6-digit code you don't recognize, it's the one listed under 500px in your authenticator app (500px).
• Deactivating your account. You enter your password, and the app's code if 2FA is on (500px).
• Deleting your account. The same: password, then the code (500px).

Those articles mention Google Authenticator by name, but the code from Novaz works the same way.

If 500px rejects your code

500px's help has no advice on rejected codes. Make sure you're reading the 500px entry in Novaz and typing the code before it changes. Then check your iPhone's clock: Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. Other causes are in Authenticator code not working?

If you lose your authenticator

Use a backup code if you saved them. Without one, 500px's setup article says to send its support team a request with (500px):

• your 500px username,
• the email address on your account, and
• a raw or original file of one of the photos you've uploaded.

500px says it can then reset your account. The request link opens a form on a visualchina.com address, the same form 500px's contact page links to. Support works weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, except US and Canadian holidays. Requests are handled by membership level: 500px aims to answer paid members within 1 to 2 business days and free Basic members within 10 (500px). Keep the original files of your uploads somewhere safe: one of them is your proof. More in Lost the phone with your authenticator app?

New phone, or turning 2FA off

500px's help doesn't cover either one. If you turned on iCloud backup or saved a backup file in Novaz, restore your accounts on the new iPhone and 500px comes along. Without one, a new phone means adding 500px to Novaz again from a fresh QR code. Until you know how 500px handles that, keep your old iPhone and your backup codes until the new phone shows working codes. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone.

Official 500px help

Each page was read in an archived copy on web.archive.org, saved on the date shown.

• How do I setup two-factor authentication? (archived copy, February 11, 2026)
• I'm unable to reset my password. What should I do? (archived copy, September 14, 2025)
• How do I deactivate my account? (archived copy, October 6, 2025)
• How do I delete my Account? (archived copy, October 29, 2025)
• How can I contact 500px? (archived copy, September 14, 2025)