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Last time I did a backup/restore between iphones using encrypted itunes usb, GA came up empty. Had to go through painful account recovery / lost 2fa procedures on a dozen accounts. Now I use "OTPAuth" instead. Even comes with an Apple Watch app!

I second every part of this comment. I ran into the same issue migrating GA to a new phone, none of my keys went with. Very frustrating experience.

I also switched to OTPAuth, great app, provides encrypted backups and switching to a new phone was seamless. Would absolutely recommend over Google Authenticator.

Only the keys that specify they may be backed up. The ones that don’t are not included, not even in the encrypted backup.

GA keys are not in icloud backups. You mean local “usb” backups?

They are definitely in local backups (note that I didn't say iCloud), but I believe they're in encrypted iCloud backups as well, as I've done recovered phones with GA tokens from an iCloud backup before.