Passkey Disappeared

I recently used passkeys on Windows Hello for the first time. After adding a PIN and making one passkey, I was wondering what the PIN recovery process was.
(I didn't forget my PIN but just wanted to see the recovery method). So I pressed "Recover PIN," and entered my password, and that turned off Hello.

When I later tried to log in into the app I used a passkey for, it wasn't showing Hello as a log in option.
After checking passkey settings in Windows, I realized that my passkey was gone.

I tried the process again to confirm that PIN recovery deletes all passkeys.
Seems crazy to me they would not have a backup for keys or at least give a warning that all your passkeys will be deleted...

So is there anyway to find that deleted passkey?

AFAIK, there is no way. If you use passkeys stored with Windows hello, you probably should add another device as a key, or figure out the account recovery process. There is no way to back them up currently.

You only have one passkey, right? Is it easier to log into the same account with username+email/password, or use an account recovery process for the account?

Hi, welcome to the forum.

pastkeys said:

When I later tried to log in into the app

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What app? Windows saved passkeys are for windows related services, for example, login to Windows or you Microsoft Account/email address. I have not personally known Windows to save passkeys for anything else. I may be wrong.

pastkeys said:

After checking passkey settings in Windows, I realized that my passkey was gone.

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Settings>Accounts>Passkey Settings> ?

pastkeys said:

So is there anyway to find that deleted passkey?

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If it isn't showing in your passkey settings then you have somehow removed it, or as you said, deleted it? Windows Passkeys are highly secure login/authentication methods. Logic says if that key is deleted, then it's gone. No recovery options, no backup location.
As I asked before, what app?

Resetting your "App" passkey would be your option. I wouldn't setup a passkey unless I had another method to access whatever it is I need to access, as a backup. Password/2Fa/ then Passkey

antspants said:

Windows saved passkeys are for windows related services, for example, login to Windows or you Microsoft Account/email address. I have not personally known Windows to save passkeys for anything else. I may be wrong.

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You can set up passkeys with web accounts now, including Google, Adobe, Discuss, etc., and Windows will save them for you.

echo2446 said:

You can set up passkeys with web accounts now, including Google, Adobe, Discuss, etc., and Windows will save them for you.

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Good to know, thanks.

echo2446 said:

You can set up passkeys with web accounts now, including Google, Adobe, Discuss, etc., and Windows will save them for you.

Click to expand...

You can set passkeys with specialized USBs, iPhone, Android, and Windows. I was using a crypto app.
They allow account creation with all of the methods I mentioned. I used Windows Hello with a PIN.

It worked fine until I did a PIN recovery on Windows.

The passkey no longer appears under passkey settings if you do a PIN recovery, and there's no warning about this.

I didn't even forget my PIN (the PIN used for Windows Hellow passkeys is the same used for Windows log-in, so I was frequently using the same PIN just to log into Windows, and was already logged in to Windows when I did PIN recovery.

I just wanted to see what the PIN recovery process was. But all you do is enter your normal log-in password and Windows Hello is
just immediately disabled. It's not really a recovery because it doesn't tell you the old PIN or have you set up a new PIN. You just suddenly stop using Windows Hello to sign in...

And Windows deletes your passkeys. I didn't notice this at first, but the crypto app was no longer detecting my Windows Hello passkey, (it just stopped showing Windows as a log in option, only showing Android/iPhone/USB). So I looked in Windows passkey setting, saw there were no passkeys saved, and eventually I realized that PIN recovery deletes everything. And I tested this by making new account with new passkeys and doing PIN recovery again, and Windows deleted the passkeys every time.

I tried setting up Windows Hellow again with the same PIN, but that didn't bring the passkey back.

So I'm wondering if that passkey is still stored in the TPM security module and could be accessed somehow.

pastkeys said:

So I pressed "Recover PIN,"

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There's no such option in Windows.