Adding recovery options for your account
There are some situations where you might get locked out of your account, such as below:
- You forgot your account password
- Someone else gained access to your account maliciously and changed the password.
In these situations, you will be able to reset password and recover access to your account, if you have set up a recovery option.
How a recovery option help recover your account
When you’re trying to reset password, you will be asked to verify your identity. There are 3 ways you can verify yourself.
- Email address - An OTP will be sent to your recovery email address for verification.
- Mobile numbe - An OTP will be sent to your recovery mobile number for verification.
- Zoho Mobile Apps - A push notification will be sent to your signed in Zoho mobile app for verification.
How to add a recovery email address or mobile number
Make sure the email address or mobile number you add is:
- Personal only to you.
- Easily accessible.
- Working and able to receive emails/SMS.
- Your personal mobile device.
To add email address/mobile number:
- Go to accounts.zoho.com.
- In the Profile section, click either Add Email Address or Add Mobile Number.
- Enter an email address or mobile number.
- Click Send OTP. An OTP will be sent to the entered email address or mobile number.
- Enter the OTP received, then click Verify.
How to add Zoho mobile apps for account recovery
This can be used only for password reset, to reset MFA you need to use backup verification code.
To set up a mobile app for account recovery.
- Go to accounts.zoho.com.
- Go to Security tab and click Account Recovery.
- Click Select Devices/Apps next to Mobile applications.
- Select the device you want to use for account recovery.
- Next, select the apps you want to allow for account recovery on that device.
(As of now, only Zoho CRM app is supported for account recovery on both Android and IOS devices, and Zoho Mail on android device alone) - You can also select Trust this device to automatically allow all the current and future supported apps that will be installed on that device for account recovery.
- Once you are done, click Update.
Troubleshooting
Getting the message "At least one recovery option is required. Add another email address or mobile number."
There are cases when you must have at least one recovery option for
your account (i.e., an email address or mobile number). It might be
enforced by your organization or because it is required by the law of
your region/country.
Common scenarios:
- If
a mobile number is the only recovery option present in your account,
you won't be able to delete it straightaway. You will need to add another mobile number or an email address before you can delete it.
- If you have an additional email address present, but still get this error, it could be because it is a Zoho-hosted email address with its inbox in Zoho Mail. Zoho-hosted email addresses can't be used as recovery options (as their inboxes would be inaccessible during a lockout). Hence, you will still need to add another email address or mobile number for recovery.
Getting the message "Your administrator doesn't allow users to reset password themselves"
For
security reasons, your administrator has restricted the organization
users from resetting password themselves. Hence, you cannot add a
recovery mobile number. If you get locked out, you can contact your
administrator to reset the password.
I can't see push notification option during account recovery/password reset
If you have enabled Account recovery using trusted Zoho applications and still you don't get the option during recovery/password reset, it is likely due to disabled notification on your device.
To resolve this make sure you have enabled notification for the respective Zoho application. If you have enabled the notification just now or after setting up the account recovery, you need to
- Reinstall the application
- Sign in to your account
- Enable or Allow Notifications.
- Set up trusted apps in Account Recovery section again. You can follow the steps mentioned above to set it up.