Is two-step authentication now mandatory? No option to switch it off.

[nannajan13]

Same here. I do not want two step authentication. I have spent a couple of hours (because after several attempts you are locked out for a while) trying to turn it off. 

It shows in my profile as on and when I click to change setting it sends me on a never ending loop of email codes and text codes. But never allows me to change the setting.

[gg30340]

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@nannajan13wrote:

Same here. I do not want two step authentication. I have spent a couple of hours (because after several attempts you are locked out for a while) trying to turn it off. 

It shows in my profile as on and when I click to change setting it sends me on a never ending loop of email codes and text codes. But never allows me to change the setting.

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BT have decided that they want 2FA authentication on their email system and there is not an option to turn it off.

The system will apparently turn off automatically after an undisclosed amount of time and use when it is decided that the device being used is a regarded as a safe device.  

[DISRUPTED]

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@gg30340wrote:

The system will apparently turn off automatically after an undisclosed amount of time and use when it is decided that the device being used is a regarded as a safe device.  

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That seems to be yet another piece of BT flannel - in practice "the system" demands a code on each and every occasion via the same and sole device, hour in, hour out, day in, day out, week in, week out. Although I've tried to avoid surplus accessing as much as possible I have likely needed several hundred passcodes since they surreptitiously forced the usage around three weeks ago. 

[licquorice]

The choice is entirely yours. Use webmail and endure 2fa or use a mail client and don't.

[DISRUPTED]

If only 'twere so simple to dismiss... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[licquorice]

It is.

[DISRUPTED]

For you, perhaps. For others, not.

[chrisjp]

Why is the simple act of setting up and using a free email client "not so simple for others"?
You'll have to use your password and may have to deal with 2FA the first time you set up your account in the Client, but after that you don't even need a password to get to your email, you just open the Client and it's there!
You can use email clients on computers and on mobile phones and you really shouldn't dismiss this solution out of hand.

[DISRUPTED]

Why is it that people respond to suggest they know and understand others' circumstances better than the user themselves?! I really can't be bothered to go into chapter and verse to yet again explain at length why it's "not so simple" so kindly just do me a favour and accept that when I comment that it's "not so simple", I have good reasons for doing so. What I didn't do was 'dismiss it out of hand'.

Things may be simple for you in your situation, but that is your situation and one which is likely very, very different to mine. FWIW, I do have/use a mail client and have done for donkey's years with substantial volumes of records since the days of dial-up. But I still need to use web-mail in order to clean up all the rubbish (spam) that BT allow to get through, parse incoming, delete spurious junk, dangerous and non-required content, select which needs to remain of the server and which doesn't (all before it gets near the mail client), as well as to get access on the move and now deal with 2FA where I can't get a reliable signal to receive passcodes. All over multiple accounts.

[Kimberlin]

It seems that the obvious solution to those that don’t want the hassle of using 2FA with BT, is to find another email provider. Of course that’s far too much effort for some and so, it’s easier to continue to moan about something that isn’t going to go away. Worse still, continue to moan about it on a customer to customer forum that can’t do anything about it anyway. As a reminder, these posts don’t go to BT. They make their business decisions according to business/security requirements. No amount of moaning here will change that.