Kintone 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app

Kintone is the no-code database and workflow platform companies run on their own kintone.com subdomain. With two-factor authentication (2FA), your Kintone administrator decides whether you can use it at all, and whether you must. If your admin allows it, you add a six-digit code from an authenticator app to your login name and password (Kintone). Kintone's help documents no other second factor, such as text messages or backup codes. This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone, but any authenticator app works the same way.

How we checked this guide: the Kintone steps come from Kintone's own help site, linked below, which we read on October 21, 2026. Kintone marks parts of that site as machine-translated, and we haven't tested the steps on a Kintone account, so a label may differ slightly. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.

First, check that your admin allows it

Kintone says the two-factor items only show up when a Kintone users & system administrator has allowed them. If you don't see anything about two-factor authentication in your settings, it's switched off for your company, and Kintone's advice is to ask your administrator (Kintone).

For admins: the option is under Login in Kintone users & system administration, where Allow users to use two-factor authentication is selected by default (Kintone). Selecting Require the two-factor authentication as well makes it mandatory, and signs out anyone who hasn't set it up yet (Kintone).

Guest users can't use two-factor authentication (Kintone).

Turn on 2FA with an authenticator app

Kintone's help names Google Authenticator and Microsoft Authenticator, but the setup is a standard QR code that Novaz reads too (Kintone).

1. Sign in to Kintone and click your user name in the header, or the menu button just to its right.
2. Click Account settings, then Login name & password.
3. In the Two-factor authentication section, click Enable. A registration dialog with a QR code opens.
4. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at the code. If Kintone is open on the same iPhone, take a screenshot, tap +, then Choose a photo. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
5. Type the six-digit code from Novaz into the dialog and click Enable.

Kintone's help doesn't mention a text key you could type instead of scanning, so plan on using the QR code.

If you're forced to set it up at sign-in

When your admin requires 2FA, you'll see a Configure two-factor authentication button at login. Click it, enter your login name and password, click Next, scan the QR code, type the code into Verification code, and click Complete your settings. Kintone then sends you back to the login screen to sign in with your new code (Kintone).

What changes after you turn it on

You'll be asked for a code after your login name and password every time you sign in to kintone.com (Kintone). Kintone doesn't document a "remember this device" option.

Two other things are worth knowing before you switch it on (Kintone):

• The Kintone mobile app asks for a verification code when you set up its login.
• Scripts and integrations that sign in to the Kintone REST API or User API with your password stop working. Kintone suggests an API token, session authentication or OAuth instead, or an account without 2FA.

No backup codes

Kintone's help doesn't mention backup or recovery codes. Without your authenticator, only an administrator can get you back in. If you lose the phone without a Novaz backup, that's your only route, so know who your Kintone admin is before you need them.

If Kintone rejects your code

When Kintone shows "The verification code is not valid," its help says the code has probably expired: wait for a new one in your app and enter it again (Kintone). If fresh codes still fail, check your iPhone's clock: Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. More causes are in Authenticator code not working?

Moving to a new iPhone

Kintone wants both phones in hand. Sign in, go to Account settings > Login name & password, click Disable in the Two-factor authentication section, then enable it again and scan the new QR code with the new phone. Only after you've signed in with the new phone should you delete the Kintone entry from the old one (Kintone). With a Novaz iCloud backup or backup file, you can restore the Kintone entry on the new iPhone instead; without one, this is the route to follow. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone.

If you lose your authenticator

Contact your Kintone administrator. Kintone says a user who no longer has the phone must ask an admin to disable 2FA for them (Kintone). A Kintone users & system administrator does this from Departments & users: find you, click Change, click Disable in the Two-factor authentication section, confirm, and click Change user information. Department administrators can't do it. Your old setup is erased, and if your company requires 2FA, you'll be asked to set it up again at your next sign-in (Kintone).

Kintone's help doesn't say what proof an admin should ask for or how long a reset takes. More in Lost the phone with your authenticator app?

Turning 2FA off

You can click Disable in the Two-factor authentication section of Login name & password yourself, as in the phone-change steps above (Kintone). Kintone's help doesn't say whether that button is still there when your company requires 2FA. To stop 2FA for everyone, for example when moving to single sign-on, an admin clears Allow users to use two-factor authentication under Login, which deletes every user's setup for good (Kintone).

Official Kintone help

• Enabling two-factor authentication
• Checking availability of two-factor authentication
• Configuration steps for two-factor authentication when requested
• Getting a two-factor authentication verification code
• Troubleshooting for two-factor authentication
• Two-factor authentication
• Allowing users to use two-factor authentication
• Requiring two-factor authentication
• Disabling two-factor authentication