Creating Account Init File (gac-codes)

You’ll need either gac-codes.txt or gac-codes.mp3 file to init accounts on your Gear device. They both have the same format, but gac-codes.mp3 makes everything easier since Samsung’s Android Gear app has capability to transfer MP3 files from a phone to your Gear device out of the box. After Android’s GAC Services app has been released, the easiest way to create the MP3 file is to use this app, since it has many features including QR Bar Code scan.

Creating Account Init File with Android App

Creating gac-codes.mp3 file with the GAC Services Android app is easy:

1. Install the Android app from here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.gryb.gaservices
2. Create account(s), e.g. by using camera and scanning QR Bar code
3. Navigate the Android app to Backup page

4. Press MP3 button on the bottom or select “Legacy backup” menu from the toolbar on the top of the screen.

5. Now you can use Samsung Android Gear’s App to transfer the MP3 file from your phone to a Gear device.

After you have the MP3 file on the Gear device use “Init from file” menu to initialize all your accounts.

Creating Account Init File Manually

Get your code from a Google’s 2-step verification website. Check this link for details. Now you can create a simple file on your PC with the code (or codes). The file can contain up to 20 lines looking as follows:

Account:Code

where ‘Account’ is an arbitrary short name that will allow your to memorize where this code should be used and code is the one that your retrieved from the Google’s 2-step verification web site. Example is provided below:

Google:wr2t ghj5 xz7y a64b yu34 hjkl uiop 45df

Code is usually a 32-char long string. You can use spaces for a better readability, but they will be removed by the program anyway.

After the file is created there are three ways of importing it to your Gear device:

1. Simplest Way – Creating gac-codes.mp3 File and Using Gear App.

Create the file as described above with the name – it gac-codes.mp3. You need the mp3 extension, because Gear App on your smartphone doesn’t transfer text files, so it’s a trick, but it does work.

Transfer  gac-codes.mp3 file to a Music folder on your smartphone that can be connected to your Gear device using Gear App.

Use your Gear App to transfer the file to your Gear Device:

Gear App -> Send Content to Gear -> Music -> Send Tracks to Gear

2. Using Gear’s Documents Folder

This approach will work if you can connect your Gear to a device to a Windows PC through a USB port . It works for all Gear devices except Gear S2, which doesn’t support a USB connection to a PC.

You gac-codes file should be named as gac-codes.txt in this case.

Simply connect your device to the PC and copy the file to your device’s ‘Documents’ folder.

3. Using SDB tool

If don’t mind installing Gear SDK with ‘sdb’ tool in it, you can use it to transfer you gac-codes.txt file to a device’s /tmp folder:

sdb connect

sdb push gac-codes.txt /tmp/.

After either of these steps is done you can import your codes on your Gear device from Client for Google Authentication App – just tap on “Init from File” menu item

GAC-CODES File Restrictions

The following rules are enforced when a file is imported. The lines, which are not compliant with these rules will be ignored and an error will be reported.

• Account name should not be too long
• Account name is not a menu item
• Account code is in base32 notation
• Code length is 16 chars or more
• Number of accounts in the file is not bigger that 20