Passkey troubleshooting, by symptom

Find the sentence that matches what you are seeing. Each page is written as a path, not a list of tips — check the cheap things first, and stop before you delete anything.

First: three facts that explain most failures

1. A passkey is not "on the internet". It is a private key held by one of your devices, a synced keychain, or a hardware key. Which one changes everything about recovery.
2. "Saved" and "registered" are different states. Your device can hold a credential the site never finished registering, and it will look identical in your settings list.
3. Three independent layers decide whether you get a prompt. Your operating system, your browser (and its profile), and the site's own implementation. Any one of them can be the blocker.

Pick your symptom

• I never got a prompt, or the prompt fails Includes: no passkey option at all, a button that does nothing, "something went wrong".
• My passkey is saved, but login still fails Usually a registration gap, a different browser profile, or a second factor the site still wants.
• It works on my phone but not my computer (or the reverse) How to test your own setup in about a minute, and what to do when the answer is "not supported".
• I use an iPhone and cannot tell where my passkeys live Keychain vs a third-party manager, and a procedure for locating one specific passkey.
• I am on Android, and my account is tied to my phone number Number-linked accounts, carrier recovery, and how that collides with passkeys.
• This is a shared or family computer Read this before you enrol anything on a profile other people also use.
• I have lost the device What survives, what does not, and the order of actions for the first hour.
• I want to make sure this never locks me out What backup means for passkeys, and the second-credential habit worth building.

Last updated: 2026-10-16