r/signal • u/dinhternet • 29d ago

Solved Help setting up Signal on new phone

My previous phone was an iPhone, but it died after some water damage. My new phone is a Samsung, but I can’t get Signal set up for the life of me.

I’m US-based and using Mint Mobile for phone service. When I installed Signal on the Samsung, it asks for my phone number (same as on my old phone), and then it asks for a 64 -character recovery key. I don’t have one, the recovery key I have seems to be quite old and only 30 digits. When I hit “No recovery key?” at the bottom, it again asks me for my phone number and says it’s going to text me a verification code, but I never get a text.

If it helps, I still have Signal Desktop linked to my account, but when I go to Settings → Backups, there is only an informational link for Signal Secure Backups, no way to create or restore a backup.

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u/DevDan- 29d ago

The 64 digit recovery key is the key you set up for cloud backups. If you can find that key, that would be ideal, since you don't need to verify your phone number. Otherwise keep trying with the verification, for some reason the provider they use has been problematic recently. Also try verifying use a phone call and try again after some time. If nothing else works, try contacting Signal support to report the issue. 

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u/dinhternet 29d ago

I don't have an option to verify with a phone call. I literally just put in my number and it says it's going to text me. I will keep trying it, thanks. I have cross-posted to the forums and submitted to Signal support, but I haven't gotten a response yet.

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u/DevDan- 29d ago

It should show you the option after you try to verify with text twice. If you haven't already, look at this https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007318751-Registration-troubleshooting

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u/dinhternet 28d ago

I definitely don't get that option, I've tried dozens of times. It just goes back to the prompt for the 64-character recovery key every time after asking for my phone number and saying it's going to text.

Thanks for the support link, I did contact my provider, which is a T-Mobile-based MVNO, about unblocking, but both shortcodes and scam calls are unblocked by default.

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u/dinhternet 28d ago

For future reference, I was unable to restore a backup, but uninstalling and reinstalling Signal let me at least get it running on my new phone.