The honest answer: this is the one scenario UIID cannot recover from, and it is worth knowing that before it happens, not after.
Every other recovery article in this help center assumes at least one surviving thread back to you — UIID Cloud's encrypted backup, saved backup codes, or an exported .uiid file. This article is about the case where none of those exist.
Why this is different from "I lost my phone." If UIID Cloud is enabled (the default), losing a device is a non-event — you sign in through another route and re-enrol. If you turned Cloud off, your exported .uiid file is designed to be your safety net instead. The genuinely unrecoverable situation is the overlap of all three: Cloud disabled, no exported file kept anywhere else, and no backup codes saved.
Why we can't make an exception. There is no central credential store to fall back on. Your Core ID and aliases are device-based and biometric-secured by design — that is precisely what keeps them out of a central database that could be breached. The same architecture that protects you from a data breach means there is no "master copy" on our side to hand back to you.
What this means in practice. A new UIID can be created in about thirty seconds, but it is a new identity — any badges, verified status, application registrations, or agent permissions tied to the old one do not transfer, because there was nothing left to prove the two are the same person.
The five-minute prevention checklist, worth doing right now regardless of how long you've had a UIID:
Confirm UIID Cloud is enabled, unless you have a specific, deliberate reason to run offline-only.
Save your backup codes somewhere you can reach without your phone — not a note on the same device.
Set up a second sign-in route (email, login certificate) in addition to biometrics.
If you deliberately run with Cloud disabled, keep at least one copy of your exported .uiid file somewhere physically separate from the device it came from.
If you administer an Organization UIID, this is not a personal risk — it's a business continuity risk. See "How should an organization manage UIID recovery securely?" and make sure at least two people hold recovery material.
If you are in this situation right now: write to [email protected] regardless — in rare cases a partial recovery route may still exist depending on your exact configuration, and we would rather check than assume.