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Authentication Help - Android

Use this article to learn how to authenticate your mSecure account in mSecure on Android. 


To keep your information as secure as possible in the mSecure Cloud, it is encrypted with a very long and random key. In addition to your account password, which is used to access the information stored in mSecure, this “Account Key” is required to authenticate you as the owner of your mSecure account. Authentication will be necessary any time you are signing in to your account for the first time after installing the mSecure app. You can learn more about our security model here


Sign Up

When you create an account in mSecure (5 and above), mSecure will create an account folder and an encrypted key on your device's internal storage (Internal storage/mSecure/USERID/mSecure.msecurekey) and send you the encrypted account key via email. mSecure will look for this encrypted account key file on your device when authenticating if you reinstall mSecure on your device. If no encrypted key is found, you can use the QR code email or the QR code in the Account Settings to authenticate your account in mSecure.



Authentication Options

After creating an account, you'll need to authenticate your account whenever you install mSecure on a new device or reinstall mSecure on the same device. After entering in your account email address and password, you will be asked to authenticate your account. You can authenticate in one of two ways:


  1. Use camera
    • Requires that you have the QR code visible on another device. For example, you can have the QR code email opened on your computer screen and use the camera option on your Android device to scan the QR code from the email on your computer and authenticate your account. You can also have the QR code available in mSecure on another device (Accessible in the Account Settings of the app), or have the QR code image opened any other way to scan and authenticate.
    • You can learn how to access the QR code or resend the QR code email in mSecure on a device you have already signed in and authenticated your account with using this article
  2. Import file
    • To authenticate your account, you can import your account QR code PNG image file, a .msib (mSecure) backup file, or the mSecure.msecurekey file created on your if you create an account on Android or if you authenticate/create an account on iOS and Mac (iCloud Drive/mSecure/UserId/mSecure.msecurekey)

      • QR code PNG file - You can download the QR code image from the QR code email. To do so in Gmail on Android: open the QR code email, tap and hold the QR code image, select "View Image", tap the More options icon on the top right corner when viewing the image, and select "Save" or "Download" to download the image to your device's internal storage under the Download folder. 
        • To authenticate via your QR code image: Tap "Import file" > Tap "<" or the back icon on the top left corner > Tap "Download" > Tap "msecure_key.png"
      • Backup file - In order to authenticate via a .msib backup file, the backup file must have been created while using the account in question. By default, mSecure creates automatic backup files of your information in the backups folder within the mSecure folders of your device's internal storage (Internal storage/mSecure/backups). 
        • To authenticate via a backup file: Tap "Import file" > Tap "backups" > Select a *.msib backup file 
      • Encrypted account key - The encrypted account key is created on your device if you created the account on Android. Otherwise, you will have to transfer the key file from another device.
        • To authenticate via the account key: Tap "Import file" -> Tap your UserID (example: RubmDIl5SB) -> Tap "mSecure.msecurekey"


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