--- title: "How to get your 2FA codes on your computer (and move them from Google Authenticator) · MetricDeck" description: "Stop reaching for your phone to sign in: put your two-factor codes in your browser, move them from Google Authenticator, and keep them safe." url: https://metricdeck.app/blog/2fa-codes-on-your-computer updated: 2026-10-15 --- # How to get your 2FA codes on your computer (and move them from Google Authenticator) If you sign in to a dozen work tools a day, you know the routine: find your phone, unlock it, open the authenticator, find the account, type six digits before they change. It takes ten seconds, fifty times a week. Two-factor codes don't have to live on your phone. They are worked out from a secret and the current time, so any device that holds the secret can make them, including the computer you're signing in on. This guide shows how to put them there, how to move the ones you already have out of Google Authenticator, and what you give up when you do. ## How two-factor codes work When you turn on two-factor with an authenticator app, the site shows a QR code. Inside it is a secret key and the account's name, in an address that starts with `otpauth://`. Your app stores the secret, and every 30 seconds it combines it with the time to make a six-digit code. The site does the same sum, and if the numbers match, you're in. This is TOTP, an open standard (RFC 6238). Nothing about it needs a phone, a network or the app that first scanned the code. Any TOTP app, on any device, makes the same codes from the same secret, which is why you can move accounts between apps. ## Your options for codes on a computer - **A password manager with codes built in.** 1Password, Bitwarden (on its paid plans) and KeePassXC can store the secret beside the password and fill both. Very convenient, but your password and your second factor then sit behind the same lock. - **A desktop or browser authenticator.** A separate app that only holds codes. [Tick](https://tick.metricdeck.app/) is one: free, open source and run entirely in your browser. - **Your phone, as now.** The most separation, and the most reaching for your phone. ## Setting up Tick 1. Open [tick.metricdeck.app](https://tick.metricdeck.app/) and choose **Open Tick**. 2. Create a master password. It encrypts everything Tick stores, and it can't be recovered, so make it strong and keep it in your password manager. 3. Add your accounts (below). 4. To sign in anywhere, open Tick, type a few letters of the account's name, press **Enter**, and paste. If the code is about to change, Tick copies the next one, so it never runs out while you paste. You can install Tick from your browser's address bar so it opens like an app, and it works offline. ## Moving your codes from Google Authenticator Google Authenticator can hand every account to another app in one go: 1. On your phone, open Google Authenticator, open the menu and choose **Transfer accounts**, then **Export accounts**. 2. Pick the accounts to move and tap **Next**. The app shows a QR code (or several, for many accounts). 3. In Tick, add an account, pick **Camera** and hold the phone up to it, or take a photo of the QR code and drop or paste the photo into Tick. Every account comes across at once. Tick also imports exports from Aegis and 2FAS (unencrypted ones), and lists of `otpauth://` links. Keep the accounts in Google Authenticator until you've checked a code from each one in Tick. Then you can remove them from the phone or keep both: the codes are the same. Two apps that won't let you leave easily: Authy doesn't export accounts (and its desktop apps were retired in 2024), and Microsoft Authenticator doesn't export them to other apps either. For those, turn two-factor off and on again on each site, or use the site's "change authenticator app" option, and scan the new QR code in Tick. ## Adding a new account When a site asks you to set up an authenticator app, it shows a QR code. With that page open, add an account in Tick, pick **Screen** and share the window: Tick reads the QR code straight off the screen, no camera needed. If the site only offers a setup key (often under "Can't scan the code?"), type it under **Setup key** instead. Before you finish, save the site's backup codes somewhere safe (a password manager is fine). They're how you get back in if you ever lose your codes. ## Is it safe to keep 2FA codes in the browser? It depends on how it's done, and on what you're protecting against. What Tick does: the secrets are encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key that your master password unlocks (PBKDF2-SHA256, 600,000 iterations). The encrypted vault is stored in your browser's IndexedDB and nowhere else: there's no server, no account, no analytics and no requests to other sites. The key lives only in memory while Tick is unlocked, Tick locks itself after a few minutes away, and copied codes are cleared from the clipboard after 15 to 60 seconds. Its code is [on GitHub](https://github.com/iamsrikanth-dev/tick) under the MIT licence, so anyone can check it. The honest trade-off: two-factor is strongest when your codes live on a different device from your passwords. Someone who steals your password still can't get in without your phone. If both live on your laptop, someone with full control of that laptop could, in principle, get both. For most people, most of the time, the bigger risk is turning two-factor off because it's a chore; a fast, encrypted authenticator on the computer is a good trade. For your most important accounts (your email, your bank, your password manager), you may prefer to keep a phone or a hardware key. ## A wrong clock breaks every code If your codes are suddenly "invalid", check your computer's clock. Codes change every 30 seconds, so a clock that's a minute out makes wrong ones. Tick compares your clock with the server's and corrects for it when it's more than 3 seconds off, but fixing the clock (turn on automatic time in your system's settings) fixes every app. ## Quick answers **Do I need an account?** No. Tick has no accounts and no sign-up. **Can I use it on two computers?** Download an encrypted backup from Tick's settings and restore it in the other browser with your master password. **What if I forget the master password?** It can't be reset. Restore from a backup you made, or use your sites' backup codes and set two-factor up again. **What does it cost?** Nothing, and it stays that way. It's made by [MetricDeck](https://metricdeck.app/tools/2fa-authenticator), which we built for agencies and freelancers who look after several clients' marketing and websites. Tick is a tool we needed ourselves, so we made it free for everyone. --- **Try it:** [tick.metricdeck.app](https://tick.metricdeck.app/) · [the code on GitHub](https://github.com/iamsrikanth-dev/tick) · more free tools: the [AI search checker](https://metricdeck.app/tools/ai-search-checker) and the [security headers checker](https://metricdeck.app/tools/security-headers).