Online security nowadays is important and we are now bombarded with requests, or in some cases, requirements to use 2FA or MFA (2 factor or multi factor authentication) for various logins.
I was recently forced into using an authenticator app so thought I'd give it a go with another web page I use. As I reached the end of the easy procedure I was then advised to download and keep (And secured with yet another password) around 12 hexadecimal numbers sequences to recover my account if I lose my phone (and the app). Warning if I lose the phone and don't have recovery codes the account may be lost. I decided to abort and go back to my normal password and text message to phone, which is 2FA.
This is becoming so complicated many are going to have issues in the future. Plus of course the software writers then decide not to update the app and one has to buy a new phone.
Geffers
Wow, that is a really complicated authentication process. I don't blame for not moving forward. I would have been here more today, but I too was dealing with authentication issues with the US IRS (Internal Revenue Service). I was trying to set up a specific electronic account and it's just taken most of my day with multiple phone calls. After, all of that work, I'm still not up and going.
Very good point on the challenge of the apps not being updated causing other issues. The world used to be so much more simpler. Sometimes, I miss the rotary phone and that text messaging was never invented...lol.