---
id: GS-3
title: Your key and iCloud Keychain
group: Getting started
summary: How a showcase is owned with no account, where its key lives, and how to back it up and restore it
keywords: [key, recovery key, back up, backup, restore, icloud keychain, qr code, ownership, no password, account]
---

Your showcase has no account and no password. It belongs to a key, and every change you publish is signed with it. Whoever holds the key owns the showcase.

## Where the key lives

The app keeps each showcase's key in your iCloud Keychain. Your iPhone, iPad and Mac on the same Apple ID share it, so a showcase made on one appears on the others by itself. The Mac never makes a key of its own for a showcase it didn't create: it waits for the real one to arrive.

## Backing up: the recovery key

For anything iCloud Keychain doesn't cover, such as a new Apple ID, a staff member's phone or a client's device, there is the recovery key: one line of text starting `showcase1:`, also shown as a QR code.

Open **iCloud** (at the foot of the sidebar, or of the list on the iPhone), then **Show Recovery Key**. It shows the key as text and as a QR code: **Copy** it, **Save File…**, or **Share…** it to a password manager, Files or a printer.

The iCloud card also says whether this showcase's key is in your iCloud Keychain and how many showcases have a key on this device. **Refresh** looks for keys from your other devices and says what it found.

Keep it somewhere safe, such as a password manager or printed in the office. **Whoever has it owns your showcase**, and can also read the values you keep only in the app. See Only in this app (LS-5).

## Adding a showcase with its recovery key

Tap or click the showcase's name, **Manage Showcases…**, then **Add with a Recovery Key…**. Paste the key, or **Open a Key File…**, or on the iPhone and iPad **Scan Its QR Code…** with the camera, pointed at the other device's Show Recovery Key. Then **Add Showcase**.

Paste it exactly as it was sent. If the app says *That isn't a Showcaser recovery key.*, part of it is missing.

## Sharing a showcase

To manage a client's showcase, ask them to send you its recovery key from the iCloud card (**Show Recovery Key**). You will both be able to manage it, and each of you sees the other's changes. See When two devices edit at once (LS-7).