Can I use Chatcove on two Macs?

You can use Chatcove on two Macs with one licence, which covers up to 2 Macs. The saved backup password does not travel between them, so on the second Mac you either enter the password the iPhone uses now, or reset it on the iPhone.

Everything stays on your Mac. Chatcove has no sync and no account, so nothing about your password is shared between your computers.

Why the password is per Mac

Chatcove saves the backup password on the Mac only, in that Mac's own secure store (~/Library/Application Support/Chatcove/backup-passwords.json, encrypted). The card says it plainly: Chatcove keeps the password on this Mac only. A second Mac has no copy and cannot ask the first one for it.

The supported way to use two Macs

Pick the way that matches how you got the password.

You know the password (you set it in Finder or on the first Mac):

On the second Mac, open Chatcove and plug in the iPhone.
On the Backup encryption card, enter the password when it says Password needed. In Chatcove 0.1.7 or later, if you see Password mismatch, use I know the password.
Click Verify or Save password.

You only have the first Mac and Chatcove made the password:

Chatcove has no screen that shows a generated password, so you cannot copy it across. Use the reset in Forgot your iPhone backup password? on the iPhone, then let the second Mac set a fresh one.

What happens to the first Mac

Turning encryption on again from the second Mac, or resetting it, changes the password on the iPhone. The first Mac's saved password then no longer matches. The next time Chatcove on the first Mac reads a backup, Chatcove 0.1.7 or later shows Password mismatch. Use the same two options: enter the new password, or reset. See The saved password does not match.

On Chatcove 0.1.6 or earlier

The first Mac shows On and verified above a Wrong password card, with no way out from there. Reset the backup password on the iPhone (Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset, Reset All Settings), quit Chatcove and open it again, plug in the iPhone and tap Trust, then click Back up again on the main one-click card, not in the step-by-step view, which can hang after a backup on 0.1.6. If it hangs, quit, reopen and click Use existing backup. Doing this changes the password again, so the other Mac then needs the same treatment: pick one Mac for backups.

In practice this means: pick one Mac as your main one, and treat the other as occasional.

Licence seats

A Chatcove licence works on up to 2 Macs. Moving to a new Mac, or freeing a seat, is covered on the licence pages: Activate and move your licence.