Fathom Analytics 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app
By the Novaz team · Updated October 29, 2026
Novaz steps checked against version 1.0.5
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Fathom Analytics is a privacy-focused web analytics service, and your account holds the dashboards, sites and billing for everything you track with it. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is optional, though Fathom suggests turning it on as soon as you start a trial (Fathom Analytics). There is one method: codes from an authenticator app. Fathom deliberately doesn't offer text-message codes, because it considers SMS too easy to intercept (Fathom Analytics).
The detail to plan for is the recovery code. Fathom gives you a single one, and using it turns 2FA off. 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 Fathom Analytics steps come from Fathom's own help center, linked below, which we read on October 21, 2026. We haven't tested them on a Fathom Analytics account, so a label may differ slightly. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.
Turn on 2FA with an authenticator app
Fathom's help article describes these steps (Fathom Analytics):
- Sign in to Fathom Analytics and open Settings.
- Click Account. Find the Two-factor authentication row and click Turn on.
- A window opens with a QR code. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at it. If you're looking at Fathom on the same iPhone, take a screenshot, tap +, then Choose a photo. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
- Novaz now shows a 6-digit code for Fathom. Type it into the field under the QR code and click Enable.
- Fathom shows your recovery code. Save it before you close the window (more on this below).
Fathom's article only talks about scanning the QR code. It doesn't say whether the window also shows a text key you can type in. If you see one, tap + in Novaz, then Enter key manually, and paste it into Setup key. See What is a 2FA setup key?
Fathom also suggests keeping the code in a password manager such as 1Password. That's one option among many: any app that makes standard time-based codes, Novaz included, does the same job.
One recovery code, and what using it does
Most services hand out a list of backup codes. Fathom gives you one. Its help calls that code "the ONLY way to get back into your account" if you lose your phone or delete your authenticator app (Fathom Analytics).
Two things follow from that:
- It works once. Signing in with it also turns 2FA off on your account. After you use it, go back to Settings > Account and set 2FA up again, which gives you a new recovery code to save.
- Keep it even if you back up Novaz. If the phone is lost and you have no Novaz backup, or an out-of-date one, it's your way in. Store the recovery code in a password manager or on paper, somewhere other than that phone.
Fathom's help doesn't describe a way to view the code again later or to generate a fresh one without turning 2FA off and on. More on backup codes in general: 2FA backup codes.
When Fathom asks for a code
Once 2FA is on, Fathom asks for the 6-digit code every time you sign in, right after your email address and password (Fathom Analytics). Its help doesn't mention a "remember this device" option or extra prompts for other actions.
If Fathom rejects your code
Fathom's help has no specific advice for a code that doesn't work. Start with the iPhone's clock, since time-based codes depend on it: open Settings > General > Date & Time and turn on Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. Also make sure you're reading the Fathom entry in Novaz and typing the code before it changes. More causes are in Authenticator code not working?
Changing phones
Fathom's help doesn't describe moving 2FA to a new phone, and it doesn't describe a switch to turn 2FA off. If you have a Novaz iCloud backup or backup file, restore it on the new iPhone and the Fathom codes keep working. Without one, each new phone means setting Fathom up again. The one reset Fathom documents is the recovery code: using it turns 2FA off, and you then turn it on again with Novaz on the new iPhone and save the new recovery code. If your Settings > Account page offers a way to turn 2FA off, use it while the old phone still works, so your recovery code stays unused. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone.
If you lose your authenticator
Sign in with your recovery code. That gets you in and turns 2FA off, so set it up again right away with your new phone.
Without the recovery code, Fathom's help offers no other documented route. Its password page points people who've lost their 2FA code back to the two-factor article, and that article names the recovery code as the only way in (Fathom Analytics, Fathom Analytics). Fathom provides support by email, at support@usefathom.com (Fathom Analytics), but its pages don't say whether support can remove 2FA, what proof it would ask for, or how long that would take. Don't count on it.
If the phone is lost or stolen, see Lost the phone with your authenticator app?
