Duo Mobile on iOS
The Duo Mobile application makes it easy to authenticate — just tap “Approve” on the login request sent to your iPhone. You can also quickly generate login passcodes, even without an internet connection or cell service.
If you need assistance installing or using Duo Mobile, please contact your organization's IT Help Desk or Duo administrator.
Researching Duo for your organization? Learn about Duo's multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions.
Contents
Changes to Duo Mobile
We've redesigned Duo Mobile to give you an updated login experience. Learn more about what's new to Duo Mobile version 4 in this video walkthrough:
Install Duo Mobile
Find the latest version of Duo Mobile in the App Store.
Supported Platforms: The current version of Duo Mobile supports iOS 14.0 and greater.
To see which version of Duo Mobile is installed on your device, open Duo Mobile and tap the menu icon. The app version will be displayed in the bottom left corner.
Activate Duo Mobile for the First Time
When you enroll in Duo for the first time and choose to add an iOS device or use Duo Push, you're shown a QR code to scan with the Duo Mobile app to complete activation.
Launch Duo Mobile and step through the introduction screens.
To proceed with adding your initial Duo account to Duo Mobile, tap Use a QR code.
Use your camera to scan the QR code shown by Duo Enrollment in your browser. If you're prompted to allow Duo Mobile permission to use your device camera, please grant it.
Give the new account a name to complete adding it to Duo Mobile.
It's a good idea to take a few minutes to practice approving and denying Duo authentication requests if you haven't used Duo before. Tap Practice now to go through some training screens like this one. If you feel comfortable using Duo Mobile to log in to applications you can tap Skip.
Respond to Duo Mobile even faster by enabling notifications. You'll see new Duo Push requests when they arrive at your device, and can approve or deny from the notification without opening the app. Tap Allow notifications to permit notifications from Duo Mobile in iOS settings.
Return to the accounts list to exit the new account process.
You'll see your newly-added Duo account in the accounts list. Now you're able to respond to Duo Push authentication requests, or generate passcodes to log in to applications.
Duo Push
If you choose to authenticate with Duo Push, you'll get a login request sent to your phone — just press Approve to authenticate.
If you get a login request that you weren't expecting, press Deny to reject the request. You’ll be asked if this was a suspicious login. If you aren't trying to log into an application or service protected by Duo and don't recognize the request, tap Yes to notify your organization's Duo administrator. If you made a mistake or the login isn't suspicious, tap No to deny the request without reporting it.
If you tapped Yes, this was a suspicious login, Duo will silence all Duo Mobile notifications for the next 20 minutes. You can still approve a Duo Push request by opening the Duo Mobile app and approving the pending authentication. Tap OK to continue to the Duo Mobile app.
Duo Push and Notifications
You can respond to Duo Push requests from the iOS lock screen or banner notification. The actions presented to you when you respond to the notification depend on your organization's Duo policy settings, such as whether or not you can approve the login request without PIN or biometric verification.
Perform a firm longpress on the Duo Mobile notification from the lock screen to reveal the "Approve" or "Deny" actions. Tap an action and supply your passcode or biometric verification (face or fingerprint) to complete the action.
When your screen is unlocked, long-press or swipe down on the Duo Mobile banner notification received to reveal the authentication actions.
On devices that do not feature 3D Touch, swipe left on the Duo Mobile notification to reveal the actions.
Face ID and Touch ID
Your organization may require biometric verification when you approve a Duo Push request. You can approve Duo authentication requests with Face ID if your device supports it.
The first time you receive a Duo Push request on your iOS device which requires biometric verification, you'll be prompted to grant Face ID permission to the Duo Mobile app. Tap OK to proceed.
Scan your face in the same manner that you use to unlock your device to approve the Duo login request.
If your first try isn't successful, tap Try Face ID Again to scan your face again.
If you're not able to approve the login request with Face ID or if you did not grant Duo Mobile permission to use Face ID, you can approve the Duo authentication request using the device's passcode.
If you're using a Touch ID capable iOS device you can scan your fingerprint to approve Duo authentication requests.
If you're not able to scan your fingerprint using the Touch ID sensor you can also approve the Duo authentication request using the device's passcode.
Verified Duo Push
Your organization may wish for you to enter a verification code shown within the Duo Universal Prompt into Duo Mobile when you approve a Duo Push request. This protects you from approving login requests not made by you and helps keep your accounts and information safe.
You will need Duo Mobile version 4.17.0 or later installed on iOS 13 or newer to verify a Duo Push request with a code.
If your organization requires Duo Push verification, Duo Universal Prompt displays a numeric code of three to six digits on-screen when you choose to use Duo Push to log in to that application.
Enter the code shown on your screen into Duo Mobile to approve the login request.
If you enter an incorrect code, tap OK on your phone, and return to the Duo Universal Prompt where you can click or tap Other options to choose a different way to log in or to try Duo Push again.
If you receive a Duo Push request on your phone and you aren't trying to log in to that application tap I'm not logging in to deny the request. You’ll be asked if this was a suspicious login. Tap Yes to notify your organization's Duo administrator or tap No if you made a mistake or the login isn't suspicious.
Apple Watch users can draw or narrate the verified Duo Push code while approving the login request from your Watch.
Apple Watch
See our Apple Watch guide.
Passcodes
Tap an account to get a one-time passcode for login. This works anywhere, even in places where you don't have an internet connection or can't get cell service.
If the account is for a Duo-protected service or application (meaning you enrolled this device into Duo and activated the app for Duo Push), then the passcode shown is valid until used. Tap Refresh Passcode to generate a new Duo passcode.
If the account is a third-party OTP account (meaning you logged into another service like Gmail and added this device as an authenticator app), then you'll see a 30 second countdown indicator underneath the passcode. If you don't use that passcode before it expires then the account refreshes with a new passcode and the countdown begins again.
If you need to use the passcode shown in Duo Mobile in another mobile app tap Copy and paste it into the other app.
Add More Accounts to Duo Mobile
To add additional accounts to Duo mobile, tap Add in the upper right of your accounts list to go to the account type selector.
If the new account you want to add shows you a QR code to scan with an authenticator app, tap Use QR code from the Add account list. Scan the QR code with your camera to add the account to Duo Mobile.
You can also choose the type of account you want to add from the list, and then choose to add that account by scanning a QR code or by entering an activation code you receive from that application. Learn more about adding third-party accounts to Duo Mobile
Duo Mobile Account Search
If you have three or more accounts on Duo Mobile, you will see an account search bar in the app. To search for an account, tap on the search bar at the top of the app to pull up your phone's keyboard and begin typing the account name. Any account name matching the search you typed in will appear underneath the search bar. Please note that you need to be running Duo Mobile version 4.22 or later.
Security Checkup
Duo Mobile's Security Checkup verifies device settings against Duo's recommended security settings, and lets you know if any of your device's settings don't match.
For example, this iOS device doesn't have the latest OS update installed and doesn't have Touch ID or Face ID enabled:
Tap on any detected issue to learn more about that particular setting and how you can update your device with the recommended configuration.
This iOS device has up-to-date software and all of Duo's recommended security settings configured:
Tap the menu and go to Security Checkup in Duo Mobile to view your device's security status at any time.
Third-Party Accounts
Duo Mobile supports passcode generation for logging in to third-party TOTP accounts, like Google and Dropbox. Learn more »
Edit Accounts
To make changes to an account in your accounts list, tap the account to expand it, and then tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of the account card to bring up the account options.
Tap Move to reorder your accounts list (shown when you have more than one account in Duo Mobile). Use the up or down arrows shown to the left of each account's name (or tap and hold the icon on the right side of the account card) to change an account's position in the list. Tap Done when you've finished reordering your accounts.
Tap Rename to change the name of an account. Enter a new name for the account and then tap Save to apply the new name.
Remove an account by tapping Delete. When you delete an account you can no longer use it to log in, and it's also removed from your Duo Mobile backup so you can't restore it later. If you're sure you want to remove this account, tap Delete on the confirmation message. Tap Cancel if you don't want to delete the account.
Backup & Restore
Your Duo Mobile account information is backed up automatically when you enable iCloud Backup on your phone or create an encrypted iTunes backup, and can be used to restore your Duo Mobile accounts only on the same device. These backups can't be used as is to migrate your Duo accounts to a new phone.
If your administrator enabled Duo Mobile's backup and restore functionality and you previously backed up your Duo-protected accounts from the app to iCloud or an encrypted iTunes backup you can restore your accounts to Duo Mobile on a new iOS device via the guided recovery process. You can also opt-in to third-party account backup and recovery.
See the full Duo Restore guide for iOS.
Duo Mobile Appearance
Adaptive View
The accounts list in Duo Mobile adapts to you. If you rotate your device into a landscape view, your Duo Mobile accounts list rotates as well.
The individual accounts shown in the list change appearance as well, showing the full account information when you just have a few accounts, and switching to a minimized account view when you have many accounts to minimize scrolling in the app.
Dark Mode
Duo Mobile's dark mode depends on your iOS system settings. There is no in-app toggle to enable dark mode. If your device has the system-wide dark setting enabled, Duo Mobile automatically switches to dark mode.
You can enable dark mode on iOS in a few different ways:
- Go to Settings → Display & Brightness → Appearance and select Dark.
- If you have an iPhone X or later, swipe down on the right side of the screen to open Control Center. Press and hold the Brightness control to access additional options, and tap the Dark Mode button.
- If you have an iPhone 8 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to open Control Center. Press and hold the Brightness control to access additional options, and tap the Dark Mode button.
Settings
Tap the menu icon to access additional settings. From the Settings you can enable backup of your third-party Duo Mobile accounts and opt in to or out of sending Duo Mobile usage data to Duo. Review Duo Mobile privacy information at the Duo Knowledge Base.
Troubleshooting
See the Common Issues guide for additional troubleshooting tips, or visit the Duo Knowledge Base. If you aren't able to resolve your Duo Mobile issue, contact your organization's Duo administrator or Help Desk.
Push Troubleshooting
If you are logging in to a Duo-protected application, but you aren't receiving an expected Duo Push authentication request, try closing Duo Mobile and reopening it. Duo Mobile checks for pending push requests whenever it's opened. If this doesn't fix it, see the Duo Knowledge Base for additional iOS troubleshooting steps.