If you’ve lost your Login Key, which is required to decrypt your account information during sign in, first check any device where you are still signed in. If you cannot find a backup, then you can choose to delete your account along with all the spaces and content owned by the account, after which you can make a new account and start over.
Check your Inbox for an email with a special link to finish the process of deleting your account.
You can find your Login Key in your account settings on any device you are currently signed in to.
On iOS, tap your name at the top of the first screen, tap “Account Options,” then tap “Login Key Card” to see the Login Key + the email associated with your account.
On the web, click on your name at the top of the left sidebar, choose “Login Key Card” to see the Login Key + the email associated with your account.
Be careful not to share your Login Key with anyone. Your Login Key is used to decrypt your account during sign in. Everything shared in a space is end-to-end encrypted and the Login Key is the secret key that no one should have access to except you.
Start by downloading your Login Key Card PDF file.
On iOS, tap your name at the top of the first screen, tap “Account Options,” then tap “Login Key Card,” then tap “Download PDF.”
On the web, click on your name at the top of the left sidebar, choose “Login Key Card,” then click “Print your account key” and choose to print to PDF.
The best place to store the PDF is in a password manager like 1Password or Bitwarden.
If you do not use a password manager, then store the PDF in a drive program like iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
And if you think you need an easier, more user friendly place, then you can also screenshot the Login Key Card and store that in your Photos library. This is not as secure, but it is better than losing your Login Key.
Your Login Key is used to decrypt your account during sign in. Everything shared in a space is end-to-end encrypted and the Login Key is the secret key that no one has access to except you. Be careful not to share your Login Key with anyone.
End-to-end encryption is a process for transmitting data that cannot be read by anyone except the original sender and the destination device. The original sending device and the destination devices are “the ends” in the “end-to-end” chain. Any intermediate server or device will only see the encrypted bytes (or cipher), which will look like random noise. No first-party or third-party service will be able to reconstruct or rebuild the original data. Only “the two ends” —the original sender and the destination device— will be able to read the data.
IBM has a good page about end-to-end encryption, if you want to dig deeper into the concept and technology.