Telegram code not arriving: where it went and what to do
Telegram doesn’t always send its sign-in code by text. Before asking for another, check where it may already have gone.
1. Look in Telegram on your other devices
If you’re signed in anywhere else, on another phone, a tablet or a computer, Telegram usually sends the code there, as a message from “Telegram”. Open the app on that device and look for it.
2. Check your email
Telegram sometimes asks for a login email and sends sign-in codes there instead of by text. If it asked you for one, the code is in your inbox.
3. On a computer, use the QR code
On Telegram Desktop or the web, signing in with the QR code is usually simplest: open Telegram on your phone, go to Settings, then Devices, and scan it.
4. If it should come by text
- Check the number and the country code.
- Wait for the timer before asking again: asking too often makes Telegram hold codes back for a while.
- Turn off any filter for texts from unknown senders, and look in your messages’ spam folder.
- If Telegram offers a call instead, take it.
5. A new account when your number won’t work
If your own number can’t receive Telegram’s texts, a one-time number like ours can take the code for a new account. It costs $1; if no code arrives within 20 minutes, the money goes back to your balance. Get a number for Telegram.
Afterwards, set a password under two-step verification, add a recovery email when Telegram offers it, and stay signed in on at least one device: a one-time number won’t receive codes later.
Telegram’s rules
Don’t use a new account to get round a ban or to send spam: that breaks Telegram’s rules and ours (see our Acceptable use policy).