Cloning ESP32 for Arduino Cloud

@davee Too bad you feel that way, but in any case it seems it isn't needed.

The one disadvantage of your method is you can't clone a new board from a bad board. My way doesn't care.

@davee Ah, now I see the problem, you are speaking as an engineer so when you say clone you mean bit for bit identical, and I as a hobbyist simply mean functions the same as. I suspect over 90% of our fellow members see it the same way. I still have 3 esp32 boards with labels on them that say #1, #2, #3 that were for an Alexa enabled Arduino IOT project in my RV. I don't remember it being any more difficult than simply doing 3 uploads. During development I constantly cycled the board as I made changes. It sounds like the secret key and login name which are both in the sketch .h files are burned into whatever board is being uploaded to at the moment. It does NOT appear that there is any checking that the current on board key etc is or isn't a match for the new board you just uploaded. All it really amounts to is a pair of long alpha-numeric strings that could easily be determined in a few minutes using a normal modern PC. Of course even that may not be required if that data is in fact not pre-loaded in the board and checked at run time. 

Here is what I find interesting in the sketch source code

ArduinoCloud.setBoardId(DEVICE_LOGIN_NAME);
ArduinoCloud.setSecretDeviceKey(DEVICE_KEY);

It SOUNDS like the 'so called secret' stuff is loaded to the board every time. When and where it is checked I have never seen. TBH, it sounds like a lot of smoke and mirrors and accomplishes nothing that I can determine.

The bottom line is the OP has solved his problem and he even thanked me which is refreshing and appreciated. I did still caution him (as I learned from you) that I was playing a hunch so it may break again at some point in the future, but at least for now he is up and running on a new board as the original board remains lost.

Suppose the ESP32 has to be replaced, is it possible to clone a new ESP32 with the same Device ID and Secret Key ?

I had specifically mentioned same Device ID and Secret Key. I had also clarified the same in a subsequent post.

Just to clarify, I am using the "free" offering of Arduino IoT. Maybe in their paid offerings, they might offer higher security such as verifying MAC addresses.

@embsysdev I am using a Paid plan and see no difference like that.