Front 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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Front is the shared inbox teams use to answer customer email, chat and other messages together, so one Front login can open a lot of conversations. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is optional and comes with every plan (Front). The only method Front documents is an authenticator app, and it only works if you sign in with a Front password (Front). This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone, but any authenticator app works the same way.
How we checked this guide: the Front steps come from Front's own help center, including the screenshots in its 2FA article, which we read on October 20, 2026. We haven't tested them on a Front account, so a label may differ slightly. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.
First, check how you sign in
You can sign in to Front with a Google or Microsoft account, with a Front email and password, or through single sign-on (SSO) set up by your company (Front). That choice decides whether Front's 2FA is open to you:
- Front email and password: it is. Follow the steps below.
- Sign in with Google or Office 365: it isn't, because turning it on asks for a Front password. Front Support can unlink your Google or Microsoft login so you can create one (Front). Otherwise, protect the Google or Microsoft account itself with 2FA. Admins can also require this kind of sign-in for the whole team (Front).
- SSO: everyone signs in through the company's identity provider, with no exceptions (Front). Front's 2FA article doesn't cover this case, so ask your IT team.
The help pages we read don't describe a setting that makes 2FA mandatory for a team.
Turn on 2FA with an authenticator app
Front's 2FA article gives these steps (Front):
- In Front, click the gear icon, then open your personal settings with the Me icon at the top of the left sidebar.
- Select Profile. Next to Two-factor authentication, click Enable authentication.
- A window titled Enable two-factor authentication asks for your Current password. Type it and click Next.
- The next window shows a QR code under Scan the QR code. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at your screen. If you're setting this up on the iPhone itself, take a screenshot and tap +, then Choose a photo. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
- Under Login with your code, type the 6-digit code Novaz shows for Front.
- Click Activate.
Front's screenshot of that window has only the QR code, with no text key, and the article doesn't mention one, so plan on scanning. The window suggests Authy or Google Authenticator, but the article only asks for an app that supports TOTP, the standard for time-based codes. Novaz is one. Front says the code changes every 30 seconds.
No backup codes
Front's 2FA article doesn't mention backup or recovery codes or a second method such as text messages, and its screenshots go straight from the code box to Activate. If you lose the phone, a company admin is your way back in (below). Unless you turn on iCloud backup or export a backup file in Novaz, its keys exist only on your iPhone, so know who your admins are before you start.
When Front asks for a code
Front's Profile page describes 2FA as "requiring access to your phone when you log in" (Front). It doesn't say whether Front remembers a device. Web and desktop sessions end after an idle period your admin picks (42 days when it's set to Never), but that timeout doesn't sign out the mobile apps (Front).
If Front rejects your code
Front's help has no advice on rejected codes. Start with the iPhone's clock: open Settings > General > Date & Time and turn on Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. If a code is about to run out, wait for the next one. Other causes are in Authenticator code not working?
If you lose your authenticator
Ask a company admin. Front says an admin can turn off your 2FA if you lose the device with your authenticator app (Front). In Front's newer admin article, the admin goes from the gear icon to company settings, selects Teammates and your name, opens Two-factor auth, switches it off and confirms with their own password (Front). The 2FA article calls that button Disable authentication, so the label may differ. The admin can't set 2FA up for you; you do that again from your own Profile.
Front doesn't describe a route for when you're the only admin or no admin can help. Ask Front Support through the chat icon in its Help Center: an AI assistant answers first and can open a ticket, and the team replies by email (Front). Support checks a user's identity before changing anything, Front says, but not what proof it wants or how long it takes (Front).
More in Lost the phone with your authenticator app?
Changing phones or turning 2FA off
To turn 2FA off yourself, go back to Two-factor authentication in your Profile and click Disable authentication (Front). Front doesn't describe moving 2FA to a new phone, so do it while you still have the old one: turn 2FA off, turn it on again, and scan the new QR code with the new iPhone. With a Novaz iCloud backup or backup file, you can restore your accounts on the new iPhone instead. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone. After a re-setup, on the old phone, open Front in Novaz and tap Remove account.
