Best Buy 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app

Your Best Buy account is the sign-in you use on BestBuy.com for orders and your My Best Buy membership. Best Buy calls two-factor authentication 2-Step Verification. It's optional, and nothing on Best Buy's help page requires it. Once it's on, signing in takes your email address, your password and a security code, sent by text or made by an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator, Duo Mobile or Authy (Best Buy). This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone, but any authenticator app follows the same steps.

Best Buy covers all of this on one short FAQ page that shows no date and skips the setup screens, so this guide fills the gaps with what to do in Novaz.

How we checked this guide: the Best Buy steps come from Best Buy's 2-Step Verification help page, linked below, which we read on October 20, 2026. Best Buy's site doesn't answer plain automated requests, so we also compared the page with an archived copy saved on web.archive.org on April 21, 2026, and found no differences. We haven't tested the steps on a Best Buy account, so a label may differ slightly. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.

Turn on 2-Step Verification with an authenticator app

1. Sign in at BestBuy.com and open Account Settings (Best Buy). The help page's Set up 2-Step Verification now link takes you straight to the setup in your account settings (Best Buy).
2. Best Buy then guides you through it. First you choose how to get security codes: by text or by mobile app. Pick the mobile app (the help page doesn't give the option's exact name).
3. Best Buy's help doesn't describe the next screen or say whether you get a QR code, a key, or both. For a QR code, open Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code. If the code is on your iPhone's own screen, take a screenshot, tap +, then Choose a photo. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
4. If Best Buy offers a key in text form, tap +, then Enter key manually. Type Best Buy as the Service, your email address as the Account if you want it, and the key as the Setup key. See What is a 2FA setup key?
5. If Best Buy asks for a code to confirm, type the one Novaz shows for Best Buy.
6. Copy the backup codes Best Buy gives you and keep them somewhere other than your iPhone.

Best Buy doesn't publish its code length or interval. A QR code carries those settings to the app, while a typed key always gets 6 digits every 30 seconds, so scan the QR code when there is one. The help page also doesn't say whether text and an app can both be on at once.

Backup codes are your safety net

Best Buy hands out backup codes during setup but doesn't say how many. Each one lets you into your account once, and when you've used them all, Best Buy makes a new set for you (Best Buy). The page doesn't explain how to view or replace them before then.

If that phone is lost or wiped and you have no Novaz backup (iCloud backup or a backup file), the backup codes are your way back in. Store them in a password manager or on paper. More in 2FA backup codes.

When Best Buy asks for a code

Every sign-in to BestBuy.com asks for a security code after your password, unless you've told Best Buy to trust the device. You do that while signing in, and from then on Best Buy skips the code on that device in that browser. Deleting cookies or changing other browser settings brings the code back. You can remove devices from the trusted list in Account Settings (Best Buy).

If Best Buy rejects your code

Best Buy's help page has no advice on rejected codes. The usual cause is the iPhone's clock: go to Settings > General > Date & Time and turn on Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. A backup code gets you in meanwhile. Other causes are in Authenticator code not working?

Moving to a new iPhone

Best Buy doesn't describe moving 2-Step Verification to another phone, only turning it off and setting it up again. Do that while the old phone still works, and save the new backup codes. If you use Novaz's iCloud backup or a backup file, you can restore your accounts on the new iPhone instead, and the codes keep working. Without one, follow Best Buy's route. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone.

If you lose your authenticator

Sign in with a backup code, then turn 2-Step Verification off and set it up again on the phone you have now.

If the backup codes are gone too, Best Buy's help page tells you to call 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289) (Best Buy). The page doesn't say what proof Best Buy asks for, whether the agent can switch 2-Step Verification off, or how long it takes. Your backup codes are the only route it fully explains. For general steps, see Lost the phone with your authenticator app?

Turning 2-Step Verification off

Best Buy lets you set it up or disable it at any time. In Account Settings, click Manage 2-Step Verification, then Disable (Best Buy). Afterwards, remove the old entry from Novaz: open it and tap Remove account.

Official Best Buy help

• 2 Step Verification (the page's heading reads "2-Step Verification")