AppSignal 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app

AppSignal is an application monitoring service: developers sign in to it to look at errors, performance data, logs and uptime checks for their apps. Its two-factor authentication (2FA) works with one kind of second step, a six-digit code from an authenticator app on your phone, which you then enter at every sign-in (AppSignal). The part to take seriously is recovery. AppSignal's documentation warns that it can't get you back into your account if you lose your phone and didn't keep your backup codes. So the codes it shows you during setup matter more here than with most services.

This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone for the app side. Any authenticator app works the same way.

How we checked this guide: the AppSignal steps come from AppSignal's own documentation, linked below, which we read on October 21, 2026. We haven't tested them on an AppSignal account, so a label may differ slightly. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.

Is 2FA required?

For your own account, it's optional. An organization owner can make it mandatory for everyone in the organization, owners included, from the organization's Members settings with Enable 2FA enforcement (AppSignal). Once that's on:

• members who already belong to the organization get 7 days to turn 2FA on, and newly invited members get 3 days;
• AppSignal sends an email and shows a warning bar in the app, both linking to the setup screen;
• anyone still without 2FA after the grace period is locked out of that organization until they turn it on.

Turn on 2FA with an authenticator app

AppSignal's steps (AppSignal):

1. Sign in and open your account's security page at appsignal.com/users/security.
2. Click Enable two-factor authentication.
3. AppSignal shows a QR code on the next page. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at it. If you're looking at AppSignal on the same iPhone, take a screenshot, tap +, then Choose a photo. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
4. Type the six-digit code that Novaz shows and press Enable two-factor authentication.
5. Save the backup codes AppSignal gives you.

AppSignal's documentation only describes scanning the QR code. It doesn't mention a text key you could type instead, so plan to scan. Its page recommends Google Authenticator, but the setup is a standard QR code, so Novaz or any other authenticator app reads it the same way.

Save the backup codes before you close the page

AppSignal shows the backup codes once, right after you turn 2FA on. Each one lets you sign in when your phone isn't available (AppSignal). Keep them even if you back up Novaz: they're your way in if the phone is gone and your Novaz backup is missing or older than this account. Keep them in a password manager or on paper, somewhere apart from your phone. More in 2FA backup codes.

If you lose the codes, or think someone else has seen them, go back to the security page and click Regenerate backup codes. You get a new set, and every older code stops working.

If AppSignal rejects your code

AppSignal's documentation has no advice on rejected codes. The usual cause is a phone clock that has drifted: on your iPhone, open Settings > General > Date & Time and turn on Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. For other causes, see Authenticator code not working?

Moving to a new iPhone

AppSignal doesn't describe a way to move 2FA to another phone. What its pages do allow is turning 2FA off and on again from the security page, which you can only do while you're signed in. So with the old phone still working, turn 2FA off, then set it up again by scanning the new QR code on the new iPhone, and save the new backup codes. If you use Novaz's iCloud backup or a backup file, you can skip that: restore your accounts on the new iPhone and the codes keep working. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone.

If you lose your phone

Sign in with one of your backup codes, then set up 2FA again on your new phone and regenerate your codes. Without backup codes, AppSignal says plainly that it can't help you regain access (AppSignal). Its documentation describes no support process, identity check or other way back in. More in Lost the phone with your authenticator app?

Turning 2FA off

On the security page, click Disable two-factor authentication. After that you can delete the AppSignal entry from your authenticator app (AppSignal). In Novaz, open the account and tap Remove account. Keep in mind that an organization enforcing 2FA blocks members who don't have it on.

AppSignal also lets you sign up and sign in with GitHub (AppSignal). Its pages don't say how AppSignal's own 2FA works together with GitHub sign-in.

Official AppSignal help

• Two-factor authentication
• Two-Factor Authentication Enforcement
• Your user account