> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.keyless.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.keyless.io/consumer/mobile-sdk-use-cases/guide-account-recovery.md).

# Account recovery

## What is Account Recovery?

Account Recovery is the term we use to describe the use case where a user is known to our customer (i.e. is registered in Keyless), but needs to be authenticated on a new device. Typically this is either where:

* They had previously been enrolled on a device but the user no longer has access to it.
* They are adding a back-up device.
* They are known to our customer, perhaps having submitted a selfie during onboarding, but have yet to authenticate on a device via our Mobile SDK within our customer's app (which would have to leverage [Keyless IDV Bridge](https://docs.keyless.io/idv-bridge/readme/idv-bridge-on-premise#operations-apis-applies-to-offline-enrollment-flow-only)).

## Client State

Keyless is able to recover an account from the Keyless [client state](https://docs.keyless.io/account-recovery#keyless-client-devices)*.*

The client state is obtained either:

1. From your backend through Keyless IDV Bridge.
   * To understand how to generate this state see our [IDV Bridge SaaS](https://docs.keyless.io/idv-bridge/readme/idv-bridge-saas#exporting-the-client-state) or [IDV On-Premise](https://docs.keyless.io/idv-bridge/readme/idv-bridge-on-premise#operations-apis-applies-to-offline-enrollment-flow-only)
   * Then head to [New Device Activation](https://docs.keyless.io/consumer/mobile-sdk-use-cases/guide-account-recovery/new-device-activation) to understand how to leverage this state to bind a userID to a new device.
2. From your client app using the Keyless Mobile SDK:
   * [Generate the client state](https://docs.keyless.io/consumer/mobile-sdk-reference/generating-client-state-via-the-mobile-sdk) during live enrollment or authentication.
   * Then head to [New Device Activation](https://docs.keyless.io/consumer/mobile-sdk-use-cases/guide-account-recovery/new-device-activation) to understand how to leverage this state to bind a userID to a new device.


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