We recently experienced a very worrying instance where the Google Authenticator App on the iPhone suddenly stopped working and wouldn’t open. What on earth causes this, we thought?

It turns out that we were not alone. Many of you out there have experienced a similar failure with the Authenticator App. It seems to be down to the recent iOS 14.2 critical security update by Apple.

After installing this little update, it seems some apps weren’t very happy, and refused to open. One of these was the Google Authenticator.

So what can you do to fix it?

Quite simple really. No need to reboot, clear cache or any other nonsense. This one’s straightforward. Do the following:

1. Go to “Settings”
2. Then “General”
3. “iPhone Storage” (can be called iDevice Storage on other devices)
4. Search for “Authenticator App” and select it (make sure its the Google one, and not the Microsoft one)
5. Click “Offload App” – this keeps the data on the phone but removes the app itself back into the cloud
6. “Reinstall App” – this simply downloads it again and puts it back where it was as if nothing happended!

Then come out of everything back to the home screen and try to open Google Authenticator App again. It should open without issue.

We did it, tried it and all our data and passcodes were still there, so we know it works.

Give it a go and see if it helps you. We are grateful to Nick Lowe on Twitter for putting this info out there a few days ago.

If the fix here does not work for you, then you may have a bigger issue at play. Visit the Apple Support site for more information on App issues.