Use Lockers
Set up an authenticator and confirm your identity
Protect owner and admin changes with an authenticator, and confirm once so it carries into your communities.
The short version
- Authenticator setup, replacement, and recovery codes live on lockers.social. A community site sends you there.
- Confirm on lockers.social before you open a community and the confirmation comes with you.
- A confirmation lasts up to 7 days in that signed-in browser, and signing out clears it.
Before you start
You need an authenticator app on your phone or computer, and the Lockers account you use for the community you administer. This works the same on Community and Pro. Account changes happen on lockers.social, so setup runs there even when you started on your community's own address.
If you created your account with Continue with Google and have never set a password, add one first. Authenticator setup asks for your current password. On lockers.social account security, the Add a password card asks you to select Continue with Google again on that page, then save a password within 10 minutes.
Set up an authenticator
Replacing an authenticator later, when you change phones, runs from the same page on lockers.social. Replacing it clears any confirmation you were carrying, so the next protected change asks you to confirm with the new app.
- 1
Open account security
On your community site, open the avatar menu and select Account security. Until you have an authenticator, that page tells you to set one up on lockers.social and then return there to confirm the session. Select Open lockers.social account security.
- 2
Confirm your password
lockers.social asks you to confirm your current password before adding an authenticator. Enter it and select Continue setup.
- 3
Add Lockers to your app
Under Add Lockers to your authenticator, scan the QR code with your authenticator app. If the app cannot scan, select Enter a setup key instead and type the key it shows you.
- 4
Confirm the authenticator
Under Confirm authenticator, enter the code your app is displaying.
- 5
Save your recovery codes
Lockers shows Save your recovery codes. Put them somewhere you can reach without your phone, then select I saved these codes.
Confirm once and carry it with you
Where you confirm decides how far the confirmation reaches. Confirm on lockers.social first and then open a community, and that community accepts the confirmation you already made. Confirm on a community site instead and it covers that community only, so a second community asks again.
Either way the confirmation lasts up to 7 days in that signed-in browser, and a new sign-in needs its own confirmation. A different browser, or a different device, starts with nothing confirmed.
Confirm on a community site
Open the avatar menu on the community site and select Account security. The page asks you to confirm your identity for this community session, and points you to lockers.social for setup and account changes.
- 1
Enter a code
Under Confirm your identity, type the code from your app into Authenticator code. If your phone is out of reach, select Use a recovery code and enter one you saved.
- 2
Confirm
Select Confirm identity.
- 3
Check the date
The page changes to Identity confirmed and shows the date the confirmation lasts until, with Confirm identity again if you ever need a fresh one.
- 4
Go back
Select Return to app to pick up what you were doing.
What asks you to confirm
Protected owner and admin changes ask: appearance changes, and adding, replacing, or removing a custom domain. Reading posts, commenting, and ordinary member activity never ask.
- An admin page without a current confirmation asks you to confirm your identity before making admin changes, or to set up an authenticator first if you do not have one. Both give you Open account security.
- Saving appearance without a current confirmation opens a dialog titled Confirm identity to save appearance, asking for the six-digit authenticator code. Use a recovery code is there as well. Select Confirm and save and the save goes through.
- Changing the domain without a current confirmation asks you to confirm your identity before changing the domain, with a Confirm identity link.
Recovery codes
Recovery codes are how you confirm when the authenticator app is out of reach, like a phone left at home or one that died mid-afternoon. Store them away from the phone that runs the app, because a copy saved only on that phone is no help on the day you need it. You can reach them on lockers.social under Recovery codes.
When a confirmation ends
Signing out clears the confirmation, and so does replacing your authenticator. After either one, the next protected change asks you to confirm again. Which sign-out you choose changes how much it clears, so read Sign out of Lockers before you sign out of other sessions.
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