Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <ingress>
Title: How do I get multiple copies of the same portal key?
Question: I've been seeing people mention in chat that they have a bunch of copies of keys for the same portal.  How are they doing this?  I feel like I have a hard enough time getting one copy of a key for most portals.

Answers:
sents: text: Before recent changes about portal key generation to own multiple keys of the same portal you had to drop the key of the aimed portal before hacking it.
text: Then, you had chances to gain a second portal, grab the dropped key
text: and you had two keys.
text: Now that portal keys are much rarest
text: when hacking, you can gain a key even if you were already carrying the same portal key, but you'll have to be patient and persistent.
text: Note that sometimes, when making a big XMP blast on an enemy resonator, a portal can drop a portal key (his key or a key of the linked portal).
text: EDIT January 2014 : since a few weeks, if you already hold a portal key, you have nearly 0% of chances to get another one.
text: To obtain a new key, drop the keys you own, then hack
text: and you'll probably get a new key (~80%)
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/18551/Cédric Julien
score: 15
sents: text: Wow, ok all these answers are super out of date.
text: Methods of obtaining multiple portal keys: Method
text: the first: Glyph Hacking
text: When you glyph hack, you can enter the More glyph into the Command Channel to request a key.
text: This makes a key a potential hack reward irrespective of how many keys are currently in your inventory.
text: Note that there is a chance that the portal will not give you a new key, just like if you hacked a portal with no key in your inventory.
text: Method
text: the second: Putting Keys in Capsules If you have a key inside a capsule (Blue Capsule/ MUFG /Quantum/Key Capsule)
text: you can hack another key from a portal.
text: This works for both standard hacking or glyph hacking with or without entering the More glyph.
text: Method
text: the third: Dropping keys If you drop a key you are holding (so that there are no un-capsuled keys in your inventory)
text: , you can hack another key from the portal.
text: As a side note, if a portal fracker is applied, it will double the hack output for all items including keys, which means that you can get 2 keys from one hack.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/80115/JamesENL
score: 5
sents: text: They try.
text: And try again.
text: .I
text: doubt that there are any factors besides random chance involved.
text: One enemy portal which I hack at most twice daily has given me three keys during the last two weeks or so; I've got no keys from some others which I hack three times as often.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/38682/Matthias Urlichs
score: 1
sents: text: Keys are issued randomly and the random chance of getting one fluctuates quite a bit at the moment as the game devs settle the tuning.
text: I'm getting lots of keys again now,
text: where is a two days ago I was getting nothing.
text: You can't 'normaly' carry two keys from the same portal in your inventory at the same time, but there is a workaround which I've read about (but not tried).
text: If you get a key, take it somewhere safe and "drop" it. go back to the same portal, and should you get another key you can keep it.
text: Go back to where you dropped the first one and pick it back up, you should (allegedly) have two keys for the same portal in your inventory.
text: ^^^
text: That is nonsense.
text: I've now got multiple keys for portals in my inventory.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/39394/Jim
score: 1
sents: text: Chances seem greater to hack an extra portal key when you "hide" the one in inventory in a capsule, if you are lucky enough to have one.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/76121/Rusty
score: 1
sents: text: You can also put a key in a capsule and then hack it again.
text: I do this quite often.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/87270/wilbur1776
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
When hacking, you gave the key for a portal even when you already have that key. Keys are issued randomly. 
While it is possible to obtain the same key more than once, it comes down to random chance.