iOS Google Authenticator Screw Up


If you have not heard the news, Google screwed up their iphone app. If you were unlucky (like i was) and updated to the latest version it wiped all of your accounts. I didn’t get hit too hard, I only lost access to two WordPress blogs. Below is how I quickly fixed it.

Step 1:

Login and/or SSH into your host (This will be different depending on your hosting provider) and gain access to your database.

Step 2:

Get a list of all active plugins.


SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';

You are going to want to save this value (makes things easier later).

Step 3:

Clear the active plugins.


UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = '' WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';

You may now log into your WordPress blog without Google Authentication. Now you have two options here. Go back and use the WordPress GUI to re-enable your plugins OR if you saved the value from step 2 above you can do the next step.

Step 5:

Quickly re-enable your plugins.


UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = '[YOUR STRING HERE]' WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';

howto