Sony has been doing all the bad things latelybut I’m not here to rant about the cancellation of physical game discs today. I’m here to help you solve a very annoying, but somehow very common problem. If you use the PlayStation app on your smartphone, you may have encountered this issue.
I logged out of my secondary PlayStation account on my phone a few weeks ago and tried to log in to my primary PS profile, which has 2FA enabled for security. Unfortunately, I did not receive any two-factor authentication text messages from Sony. It was the beginning of the weekend, which meant I would have to wait two days before Sony customer service would be online.
So this is what I did to fix it and finally log back into my account.
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How to regain access to your PlayStation app when two-factor authentication fails
Generally the correct thing is use your backup codes when 2FA fails. And trust me, Sony’s PlayStation app regularly doesn’t send a 2FA SMS. Just go to Reddit and you’ll find countless accounts of this happening (here, hereand here). PlayStation account users have even been prevented from logging into their PS4 and PS5 due to this issue.
Anyway, I kept my backup codes in such a safe place that even I couldn’t find them. So this is what I did.
1. Open the PlayStation app and tap Login.
2. Enter your email address and tap Next.
3. Instead of entering your password, select the Having trouble logging in? option.
4. You will have to reset your password now by selecting the Recover your account > option.
5. You will be redirected to the account recovery portal. Enter your email address there and tap Send link.
6. Once the password recovery email arrives, choose set up a password instead of a password. This automatically disables two-factor authentication.
7. Once you’ve set up your passcode, sign in to the PlayStation app using your passcode.
The PlayStation app can be your salvation when you can’t access your PSN account
Previously, PlayStation Network (PSN) users could use 2FA on their PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4 if they were not sent a verification code via SMS. But that option is no longer available. So if you can’t get your two-factor authentication code via text message, you have to rely on your backup codes.
Fortunately, even if you misplaced your backup codes, this trick allows you to reset everything without relying on 2FA. Once a passcode is set up, it is linked to your password manager. So make sure you don’t get left out of that!
