Using LastPass Authenticator Android App

  • Just wanted to add a couple of tips for newbies like myself.

    Not surprisingly, the installation instructions for Google Authenticator are not complete. (WordPress apps generally have the worst documentation I’ve ever come across.) In this case, the instructions say that to activate the plug-in after installing it, you just have to enter a description on the Users -> Profile and Personal options page.

    I did that, but then when I tried to scan the QR code using the LastPass Authenticator app, nothing happened. It wouldn’t register or add the new account. I concluded that this app was not compatible with LastPass.

    However, I did some research and then I learned that to activate the plugin you also have to tick the little box that reads “Active”. After you tick this box, then you can scan the QR code. This may be obvious to lots of people, but it wasn’t obvious to me, and this information should have been included in the installation instructions. I generally run into so much trouble with WordPress that I’m hesitant to do anything without strict instructions to do so. I wouldn’t want to click that “Active” button at random just to see what happens. Who knows what disaster I could cause?

    Also, the instructions say nothing about what happens after you have the app installed and up and running. I just went back to my User page in my WordPress dashboard, and I noticed that now the “Active” box is unticked! Does that mean the plugin has been disabled somehow? Not only that, the description is back to the default. The description I entered is gone. And there is a new secret code.

    I did some thinking about this, and I concluded (rightly or wrongly) that this is normal behavior. Apparently, these settings do not apply to the current account you’ve added to your Authenticator app. They only apply when you add the account. Then they just go back to the default or go blank. So it’s okay that they are all blank.

    In any event, this information should also be included in the documentation. It’s confusing otherwise. To be honest, I don’t even have a clue what the “secret” is for or why I would want to create a new secret. Perhaps all of this is obvious to experienced programmers and WordPress professionals, but it isn’t obvious to me. The poor quality of WordPress documentation and instructions is becoming a pet peeve of mine. It makes things so frustrating and difficult.

    Anyway, it appears to be working, and I can report that this Google Authenticator plugin works just fine with the LastPass Authenticator android app. (More information that could be included in the plugin documentation but isn’t.)


    Update:

    It turns out that I was wrong about some of what I wrote above. After I went through the whole process, I discovered that I could log in to my WordPress account WITHOUT entering the Google Authenticator code. So even though I’d installed it and created an account on my smartphone with LastPass, it wasn’t working.

    After a lot more research, I realized that the documentation for Google Authenticator plugin had left out ONE MORE important step: after you finish with the Google Authenticator settings, you have to navigate down to the bottom of the User Profile window and click on Update Profile. This saves your settings. And NOW the plugin is turned on and active.

    That’s why when I went back to the Google Authenticator settings earlier, all the settings were blank. I hadn’t saved those changes to my User Profile. Again, this is probably perfectly obvious to lots of people, but I wasn’t aware of this. And this led to more confusion about using this plugin. Now when I go back to the Google Authenticator settings, the “Active” window is still ticked, which is logical. This indicates that the plugin is installed and activated on this account.

    I seem to have finally got there.

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