Reply to What are account recovery options with FusionAuth? on Thu, 14 May 2026 02:58:44 GMT

dan — Thu, 14 May 2026 02:58:44 GMT

Lots of options!

Self-service password recovery — SMS or Email based forgot password flows out of the box, with hosted pages that require no custom UI. If a user's login ID is a phone number, the reset is delivered via SMS automatically.
API-driven recovery — The full forgot password flow is triggerable via POST /api/user/forgot-password with an email, phone, or username as the login ID, giving teams complete control over the UI and recovery experience.
Admin and support-assisted recovery — Support staff can trigger resets or force password changes directly from the admin UI, no email required.
Admins can also remove MFA methods directly from the user record.
MFA recovery — Recovery codes generated at MFA enrollment let users bypass a lost second factor.
Self-service MFA configuration — Users can add, remove, and manage their own MFA methods (TOTP, SMS, email) from a hosted self-service account page without any admin involvement. Removing a method requires completing an MFA challenge first, which prevents unauthorized removal. If an admin removes a user's MFA method and the tenant or application policy is set to Required, the user will be prompted to set up MFA again on next login.
Webhooks and event-driven recovery — FusionAuth fires events like user.login.failed and user.password.reset that your backend can listen to and act on, enabling custom recovery logic, audit trails, and downstream notifications.
Account linking and IdP recovery — For users who log in via a social or enterprise IdP, FusionAuth can be configured to link that identity to a FusionAuth user record. If the IdP connection is the issue, the user can still go through the standard forgot password flow as long as an phone number or email is on their account, so recovery isn't solely dependent on the IdP being available.