iOS Authenticator app "hangs" at splash screen since last update

Ask the Community Authenticator
1

Hi, a week or so ago, my iphone updated to iOS26.3.1, and I do not know if there was a recent Authenticator update around the same time, but my Bitwarden Authenticator has not been able to open - it hangs at the splash screen - since about that time.

I see that others have occasionally reported this but the most recent I could find was almost 2 years ago and there were no answers to that post. Is this a known phenomenon with a workaround other than “delete the app” (as most of Reddit thinks is the answer, but some people have also reported THAT didn’t work). I also presume will delete any seed values that are just on the phone and I’ll have to go through whatever hassle it is to get back into my 2FA accounts?

Would love some tips and tricks if anyone has gotten around this occurrence.

2

@Johannab Welcome to the forum!

Did you already try to restart the phone?

3

Apologies, I left out the obvious - yes, restarted the phone several times.

Also checked that there was a more recent Bitwarden Authenticator update than the iOS update so I updated to that, but same state persists.

4

It’s only obvious, when you already know it. :wink:

Hm, but then I think I can’t say anything more than: contact BW support. Maybe they have an idea.

If you don’t have a recent export – which would be ideal of course – …: Bitwarden Authenticator | Bitwarden (–> but I don’t know what “To restore your data, restore your device’s cloud backup.” would mean for an iOS device that you don’t want to restore completely…)

5

Thanks for your direction - it’s fixed thanks to support.

I’ll share, because it might happen again:

Device: iPhone 17

OS: iOS 26.3.1, which auto-updated early last week (if I recall)

Bitwarden Authenticator v.: 2026.2.1(497), which updated only a couple days ago WHILE it wasn’t working)

tech support asked me a question which had the solution in it: is FaceID used with Authenticator?

That was it.

I didn’t think of it, because FaceID doesn’t work well for me and I don’t enable it on most things. I also keep turning off Apple intelligence. I found both of these enabled for Authenticator. I do not know for sure, but this began with the iOS update so they were possibly re-enabled or I agreed to do so thoughtlessly when prompted after the phone rebooted.

Anyway. turned of FaceID and Apple intel, Authenticator working fine! Now exporting it, just in case it’s more broken next time.

6

Well, I’m glad they (BW support) could help you with this!

And thanks for sharing the solution!