In short
A Recovery Mark is a picture that proves you are you. You generate one while you still have access, keep it somewhere safe, and if you ever lose your phone you scan it to get back in. Without one, getting an account back is a manual process that takes up to a working day; with one, it takes minutes.
The thing to get right is where you keep it. The platform’s own advice is to print it, because a Recovery Mark saved to cloud-synced photos is only ever as strong as the account holding those photos — which may well be the account you have just been locked out of. You can show the image again from Settings while you are signed in, but not once you are locked out, so the printed copy is the one that counts.
On this page
- What it is and what it replaces
- Why printing beats saving
- Making one
- Saving it, printing it, and showing it again
- Using it to get back in
- What the scan checks
- Five uses, not five attempts
- A worn or copied mark still works
- The forty-eight hour rule
- Revoking and replacing
- Symptoms, causes and fixes
- Things people commonly get wrong
What it is and what it replaces
A Recovery Mark is an ordinary-looking image carrying an invisible watermark unique to your account. It works the way a recovery code works, except that it is a physical thing you can hold rather than a string you have to store somewhere.
Nothing is printed on it. The identifier lives only in the watermark, which is invisible, so one card looks much like another. Tell yours apart by the picture on it, or by scanning it.
Its whole purpose is the day your phone is gone. Generating one switches your account to self-service recovery. Until you do, starting a recovery produces a different answer entirely: your request is passed to a person, and you are told to expect an email within one business day. That is the real cost of not having one — not that recovery is impossible, but that it stops being something you can do yourself, at the time you need it.
Generate one now, while you are reading this and still signed in. It takes a moment and it is the only step in this article you cannot do later from a locked-out position.
Why printing beats saving
When your mark is generated, the platform gives you this advice directly: printing it provides the strongest protection, while saving it to cloud-synced photos is convenient but reduces its security to that of a backup code.
The reasoning is worth spelling out. A recovery credential is only useful if it survives whatever went wrong. A photo library that syncs to the same account ecosystem as your phone is not independent of your phone — if you lose access to one, you have a fair chance of having lost access to the other. Paper in a drawer has no such relationship to your handset.
Print it, put it somewhere you would keep a passport, and if you want a second copy give it to somebody you trust with your post.
Making one
Recovery Marks are included with paid plans. On a free account the request is refused with a note to upgrade, and the backup password is the recovery credential instead.
The platform allows two active marks at a time — a primary and an alternate, so one can live at home and one somewhere else — and refuses a third until one is revoked. Worth knowing, though, that the app does not currently offer to add a second: its Recovery Mark screen has three actions, and the create action replaces rather than adds. Holding two at once is a platform capability the app does not expose.
Generating your first mark is also what turns self-service recovery on for the account. You do not need to enable anything separately.
Saving it, printing it, and showing it again
Marks issued from August 2026 onwards are stored, so the picture can be brought back at any time while you are signed in: Settings → Security → Recovery options → Recovery Mark → Reprint or re-save. It shows the same mark, costs nothing, spends none of your five uses, and creates no new mark.
Marks issued before that are not stored and cannot be shown again. If you hold one of those and no longer have the printed copy, the app tells you so plainly, and the remedy is to replace it.
Reprinting is not a substitute for keeping the printed copy. It only works while you are signed in — which is exactly what you will not be on the day you need the mark. Save it, print it, and check the print is readable.
Using it to get back in
Recovery is three steps and they must happen in order.
The code lasts ten minutes and is stored in a form nobody can read back, so it cannot be looked up by anyone, including support.
What the scan checks
The uploaded picture goes through a series of checks that stop at the first failure, so the message you get names the real problem.
| Check | What it means if it fails |
|---|---|
| The code step was completed | You have skipped ahead. Go back and enter the emailed code |
| The image is under 25 MB | Photograph it again at a smaller size |
| A watermark can be read at all | The photograph is too blurred, dark or angled |
| It is a Linxy mark | The image is not one of ours |
| It is a Recovery mark | You have photographed an ordinary Linxy Mark. The message says so plainly |
| The mark is still active | It was revoked, or it has been used up |
| The mark belongs to this account | It is somebody else’s mark, or a mark from another account of yours |
Recovery Marks are given identifiers from a reserved range, which is how the last two checks can be distinguished. Scanning a content Mark by mistake is a common and harmless error, and it produces its own message rather than a generic failure.
Five uses, not five attempts
A mark is good for five successful uses. When the fifth is spent the mark revokes itself, and the message tells you to generate a new one from a signed-in session.
The distinction between uses and attempts matters. Failed scans — a blurred photograph, the wrong image, a mark that is not yours — do not spend the budget. Only a scan that passes every check counts. So there is no risk in re-photographing a mark that would not read.
There is a risk in testing it for fun. A curiosity scan is a successful use and costs you one of five. Once all five are gone you need a signed-in session to make a replacement, which is exactly what you will not have on the day you need it.
A worn or copied mark still works
When the mark is read, its strength is compared with what it was when it was made, and the result is graded. A clean read passes straight through. A weaker read — a mark that has faded, been folded, been photocopied, or been photographed off a screen — is graded lower.
A poor grade does not refuse you, and does not delay you. The grade is recorded against the attempt and recovery proceeds normally. This is why printing is safe advice rather than risky advice: paper degrades, and degradation does not cost you your account. It is still worth reprinting a mark that has started reading weakly, so the record stays clean.
The forty-eight hour rule
The mark remembers the device that last presented it. If a different device presents the same mark within two days, recovery is blocked and the attempt is recorded as locked.
This is the protection against somebody who has photographed your printed mark. Their attempt and your attempt cannot both proceed inside the same window, so a stolen copy does not quietly work alongside the original.
The practical consequence for you is small but worth knowing: if you start a recovery on one device and then switch to another, wait rather than retrying immediately.
If you still have any signed-in device, you do not need account recovery at all. Open Linxy there and add the other device from Settings. That works immediately — no Recovery Mark, none of your five uses spent, and no waiting. Account recovery is only for when no signed-in device is left.
Revoking and replacing
You can revoke a mark at any time from a signed-in session, and revocation is permanent — a revoked mark cannot be brought back. Revoke immediately if a printed copy goes missing.
Regenerating is not the same as making another one. It revokes every active mark you hold and issues one new mark in their place. If you were keeping a primary at home and an alternate at your parents’ house, regenerating turns both of those printed sheets into waste paper in the same instant, and only the new one works.
| You want to | Do this | Effect on your other mark |
|---|---|---|
| Add a second copy in a second place | Reprint the mark you already hold and print it twice | None. One mark, two sheets |
| Replace one lost sheet | Revoke that mark, then generate | None, if you revoke the right one |
| Start completely fresh | Regenerate | Both are revoked. Re-print everything |
Symptoms, causes and fixes
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “Check your email within one business day” | No Recovery Mark on the account | Nothing to do now. Wait for support, then set one up afterwards |
| “This is a content mark, not a Recovery Mark” | You photographed an ordinary Linxy Mark | Find the right sheet and try again. Nothing was spent |
| “Channel verification must be completed first” | The emailed code step was skipped | Enter the code, then upload the image |
| No watermark detected | Blur, glare, shadow or a steep angle | Flat, evenly lit, filling the frame, taken straight on |
| “Recovery Mark scan limit reached” | Five successful uses are spent; it revoked itself | Generate a new one when next signed in |
| “Recovery blocked — security concern” | A different device presented this mark within two days | Wait, then retry from one device. If you did not scan it, treat the copy as compromised and revoke it |
| The mark read weakly | Faded, folded, copied, or photographed off a screen | Nothing — recovery still proceeds. Reprint afterwards so the next read is clean |
| I closed the screen without saving the image | Nothing is lost for a stored mark | Settings → Security → Recovery options → Recovery Mark → Reprint or re-save. Marks issued before August 2026 cannot be shown again — replace those |
| “Maximum active recovery marks reached” | You already hold two | Revoke one, then generate |
| Recovery is temporarily locked | Too many failed attempts | Wait for the period named in the message |
Things people commonly get wrong
Related reading: Setting a guardian, Recovering your account after losing your device, Your devices, and What is a Linxy Mark.