What is an exceptional recovery?

Exceptional recovery is the very last resort for regaining control of your account, when no automatic method has worked. It never opens your account on its own: it opens a case, verified by trusted people and bound by a security delay.

A last resort, never immediate access

When you start an exceptional recovery, nothing is granted to you on the spot. A request is opened, then verified by your trusted contacts: at least 2 of them must approve it. On top of that comes a non-negotiable 72-hour security delay, which cannot be shortened or bypassed.

• The account holder is notified the moment the request is opened.
• A "This wasn't me" link permanently freezes the request if you did not start it.
• Support has no magic button: no one, not even the support team, can bypass these checks.

Before it comes to this

Exceptional recovery only comes into play if no simpler method is available. A normal recovery has three steps: you give the old email or number, you prove it is really you, then you replace the lost factor with a new one. You replace the factor (a new email or a new number), you do not merely reset a password.

Depending on what is available on your account, you can prove it is really you with:

• a backup code, generated ahead of time and single-use;
• an approval from another device already signed in to your account;
• a passkey, which authenticates you directly;
• the password, only if the account has none of these strong protections.

Once recovery succeeds, all your existing sessions are signed out: you reconnect with the new factor, and the old email or number can no longer be used to sign in or to identify you. A security event is logged and a notification is sent to you.