# Managing Barnes and Noble Keys

If you have upgraded from an earlier version of the plugin, any existing Barnes and Noble keys will have been automatically imported, so you might not need to do any more configuration. Continue reading for key generation and management instructions.

### Changes at Barnes & Noble

In mid-2014, Barnes & Noble changed the way they generated encryption keys. Instead of deriving the key from the user's name and credit card number, they started generating a random key themselves, sending that key through to devices when they connected to the Barnes & Noble servers. This means that most users will now find that no combination of their name and CC# will work in decrypting their recently downloaded ebooks.

Someone commenting at Apprentice Alf's blog detailed a way to retrieve a new account key using the account's email address and password. This method has now been incorporated into the plugin.

### Creating New Keys:

On the right-hand side of the plugin’s customization dialog, you will see a button with an icon that looks like a green plus sign (+). Clicking this button will open a new dialog for entering the necessary data to generate a new key.

- Unique Key Name: this is a unique name you choose to help you identify the key. This name will show in the list of configured keys. Choose something that will help you remember the data (account email address) it was created with.
- B&N/nook account email address: This is the default email address for your Barnes and Noble/nook account. This email will not be stored anywhere on your computer or in calibre. It will only be used to fetch the account key that from the B&N server, and it is that key that will be stored in the preferences.
- B&N/nook account password: this is the password for your Barnes and Noble/nook account. As with the email address, this will not be stored anywhere on your computer or in calibre. It will only be used to fetch the key from the B&N server.

Click the OK button to create and store the generated key. Or Cancel if you don’t want to create a key.

New keys are checked against the current list of keys before being added, and duplicates are discarded.

### Deleting Keys:

On the right-hand side of the plugin’s customization dialog, you will see a button with an icon that looks like a red "X". Clicking this button will delete the highlighted key in the list. You will be prompted once to be sure that’s what you truly mean to do. Once gone, it’s permanently gone.

### Renaming Keys:

On the right-hand side of the plugin’s customization dialog, you will see a button with an icon that looks like a sheet of paper. Clicking this button will promt you to enter a new name for the highlighted key in the list. Enter the new name for the encryption key and click the OK button to use the new name, or Cancel to revert to the old name..

### Exporting Keys:

On the right-hand side of the plugin’s customization dialog, you will see a button with an icon that looks like a computer’s hard-drive. Use this button to export the highlighted key to a file (with a ‘.b64’ file name extension). Used for backup purposes or to migrate key data to other computers/calibre installations. The dialog will prompt you for a place to save the file.

### Importing Existing Keyfiles:

At the bottom-left of the plugin’s customization dialog, you will see a button labeled "Import Existing Keyfiles". Use this button to import existing ‘.b64’ key files. Key files might come from being exported from this or older plugins, or may have been generated using the original i♥cabbages script, or you may have made it by following the instructions above.

Once done creating/deleting/renaming/importing decryption keys, click Close to exit the customization dialogue. Your changes wil only be saved permanently when you click OK in the main configuration dialog.

### NOOK Study

Books downloaded through NOOK Study may or may not use the key found using the above method. If a book is not decrypted successfully with any of the keys, the plugin will attempt to recover keys from the NOOK Study log file and use them.