Re: [Ring] access Ring account without PIN

[Sebastien Blin]

hi.

This question was actually discussed a lot on this ml and on the gitlab.

You can read some examples:

here https://git.ring.cx/savoirfairelinux/ring-client-android/issues/518 
and here https://git.ring.cx/savoirfairelinux/ring-client-android/issues/518

In short, if you uninstall ring and didn't save your account archive 
somewhere... you have deleted your account forever and nobody will be 
able to retrieve it. Ring doesn't use a central server to store accounts 
infos and doesn't work with login/password.

So, when you create a Ring account, you will generate a pair of keys on 
your device. These keys are only stored on YOUR device in an archive. 
When you want to export these pair of key, you can use two ways:

1. Directly export the archive on a USB key for example and then, import 
the account's archive (not available on Android for now)

2. Export on the DHT, then import on the other device. To protect this 
archive on the network, the PIN is necessary (Ring can work without any 
password)

I hope I am clear enough.

Sebastien


On 10/26/18 6:37 AM, Pierre Louis wrote:
> Dear Ring community
>
> I had to reinstall the Ring app on my Android phone (via f-droid). I 
> was not able to generate a PIN to add a new device (and this is 
> technically not a new device). Unfortunately, I cannot link my 
> existing account to the application anymore, without having the PIN. I 
> did not install ring on any other device, so I cannot generate the PIN 
> number from anywhere else.
>
> Is there a way to solve this problem other than create another account?
> Technically, why is the PIN code needed rather than a simple 
> login/password authentication method?
>
> Thank you very much for your help
> Pierre Louis