Google Code Decoding 2 QR Code Authentication Factor

Question

According to the wiki , the Google 2 key authentication secret key must be a 16-character base32 string. When I decode the QR code that Google sent to me, I believe that it matches the key format specified by Google , but I believe that the secret length is incorrect. Has Google changed the secret length or encoding format? Is there a way for me to get a string of 16 base32 characters from the secret key that I have? My QR code key (which I obviously don’t copy and paste exactly):

otpauth://totp/Google%3Amyemail%40gmail.com?secret=7gmdmzctmhpm7i6nrmbom6u5gny7o6la&issuer=Google 

Here is what I know:

• This is not hex.
• Length 32 characters.
• It matches base32, but why is all this lowercase? An example in the google key format specification showed all uppercase letters:

The only thing I can imagine is that Google changed the format from 16 characters to 32 characters. Does anyone know about this?

Answer 1

The length of the mystery is only 16 characters, which are one case.

It does not matter if it is lowercase or uppercase A, as it translates to one bit.