AVG 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app for your AVG Account

Your AVG Account, at id.avg.com, is where you manage paid AVG subscriptions: downloads, activation codes, billing, refunds and invoices. AVG creates it from the email address you used to buy a subscription (AVG).

Two-factor authentication (2FA), which AVG calls 2-step verification, is optional. The only method AVG documents is a 6-digit code from an authenticator app, backed up by a single recovery code. Its help mentions no text-message option (AVG).

AVG's article walks through Google Authenticator only, but the account screens in its screenshots ask for a code from an authenticator app in general. This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone. Any authenticator app works the same way.

How we checked this guide: the AVG steps come from AVG's own support articles, linked below, which we read on October 21, 2026. We haven't tested them on an AVG Account, so a label may differ slightly. The page data of AVG's 2-step verification article says it was last revised in June 2022, so the screens may have changed since. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.

Turn on 2FA with an authenticator app

Watch out for the first of the three setup screens: its QR code isn't for your account. Steps from AVG's article and screenshots (AVG):

1. Sign in at id.avg.com. On the Account settings tile, click Go to account settings.
2. In the Security section, under 2-step verification, click Turn on 2-step verification.
3. Type your AVG Account password and click Continue.
4. Step 1 / 3, Install the authenticator app, is about getting Google Authenticator. The QR code behind its Or scan a QR code to get the app link only leads to that app's download page, so don't scan it with Novaz. Click Continue to setup.
5. Step 2 / 3, Set up Google Authenticator, shows the QR code for your account. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at it. If the page is open on the same iPhone, take a screenshot and use Choose a photo instead. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
6. Novaz adds AVG and shows a 6-digit code. Type the current one into Enter verification code and click Turn On.
7. Step 3 / 3 confirms that 2-step verification is on and shows your recovery code. Copy it with Copy to clipboard or write it down, then click Close.

In AVG's screenshot, a Trouble scanning the code? link sits below the QR code, but the article doesn't say what it opens. If it gives you a text key, add it in Novaz with +, then Enter key manually, and put the key in Setup key. AVG doesn't state how often its codes change, so scanning is the safer choice: the QR code tells Novaz the settings. See What is a 2FA setup key?

The recovery code

AVG issues a single recovery code: R- followed by 25 digits, split into five blocks. Entered at sign-in, it switches 2-step verification off so you can get back in, and you then set up the authenticator again (AVG). AVG also calls it a recovery key.

A screenshot of the Security section shows a Get a new recovery code link once 2-step verification is on. The article doesn't describe it, but it's where to look if you misplace the code while you can still sign in.

Without a Novaz backup, this code is your way back in if that phone is gone. Store it on paper or in a password manager, not only on that iPhone. More in 2FA backup codes.

When AVG asks for a code

The setup screen says you'll need a code "every time you sign in to your AVG Account on the web" (AVG). After your email address and password, a Please verify it's you screen asks for the 6-digit code. Type it and click Continue. AVG mentions no option to trust a device and skip the code.

Continue with Google is another way in, as long as the Google account uses the same email address as your AVG Account (AVG). AVG doesn't say whether that route also asks for the code.

If AVG rejects your code

AVG's help has no advice for rejected codes. Check that the code comes from the AVG entry in Novaz and hadn't just changed. If codes keep failing, the iPhone's clock is the usual cause: turn on Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. More causes in Authenticator code not working?

If you lose your authenticator

Your recovery code is the way back in (AVG):

1. Sign in with your email address and password.
2. On the Please verify it's you screen, click Troubles with the authenticator app?
3. Type the recovery code, then click Turn Off.

That turns 2-step verification off. Set it up again with your new phone, and save the new recovery code it gives you.

Without the code, the same screen offers Contact support for help. AVG's help is silent on the proof support needs and on response times. More in Lost the phone with your authenticator app?

Moving to a new phone

AVG's help has no transfer step. What you can do with its documented steps: switch 2-step verification off using a code from the old phone, switch it back on, and scan the fresh QR code with the new phone. Finish this before you reset the old iPhone, unless you have Novaz's iCloud backup or a backup file: then you can restore your accounts on the new iPhone instead. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone.

Turning 2FA off

1. On the Account settings tile, click Go to account settings.
2. Under Security, click Turn off (AVG).
3. Enter your password and click Continue. Then enter the 6-digit code from Novaz and click Continue.
4. Confirm with Turn off, then click Close.

Then open the AVG entry in Novaz and tap Remove account.

Official AVG help

• Protecting your AVG Account with 2-step verification
• AVG Account - FAQs