Keychain hassles

I just bought a new MacPro. I wanted to change the short name for the new computer so when I migrated the data from the old Mac (G5 dual 2.7) I had the old user account change it's name during the transfer to my new preferred short name. Great, my new user short name has access to all the stuff that I used with the old short name, however the short name is still the name in keychain and whenever I check mail or go online I have to type in my admin password. It has not given me the option to "allow always".
Do I need to reset my keychain or delete it? Everything works but it's just a hassle to always need to use my password. I have used Keychain first aid and have set the keychain preferences sync login password and to set loign keychain as default. What's next? Amd why do they make it impossible to reset your short name?????? I really hope they change this system in leopard. It's quite a hassle.

Where I live, the public library system went online so you can renew books, place items on hold, etc. This works well, save for the fact that every time you want to sign in, you must enter a 14-digit account number and a PIN code. I wanted these saved in my keychain, but Safari never offered.
So I looked into it a bit more. The page source for the login screen specified AUTOCOMPLETE="off" in the form tag. This seems to tell Safari to keep your keychain out of the picture.
I can understand why the library did this. They use the same web site on the public terminals in the library itself, so if your password got saved on a public machine, the next guy could check stuff out in your name.
From home, however, this is a total aggravation. I can't remember all those digits, so help me, and it's a bother to have to fish out my library card and transcribe them time and time again. Safari should include an advanced usage feature wherein you can override the default behaviour, at least for specific web sites and with a proper warning.
For now, though, I was relieved to find some merciful soul has posted a hack to keep Safari from recognizing AUTOCOMPLETE in a tag:
http://magicpubs.com/mac/software/autocomplete/
It was written for Tiger, but I have used it successfully in Leopard with Safari 3.
A word of warning, however. While it may not matter much for the local library, I would not store a bank password in the default keychain for security reasons. (Mine is in a separate keychain which locks itself after several minutes.) Having to enter a password to access bank accounts is always a good idea, even if it's the master password for your keychain rather than the web site password itself.

Similar Messages

  • How can I figure out what my password is and keep it unlocked?  Every time I do a system update, it requires the password and sends me into cyber trouble with the remember my keychain access, requiring it every time I log in.  A real hassle to be avoided

    How can I find out what my password on the computer is?  I had to change it due to my teenagers helping themselves, and now every time there is a system update, I have to have the password, which I cannot remember or find.  It then wants it every time I log in and pops up Key Chain Access as well.  Very annoying.  I do not have the disc to reload it and fear I would loose everything on my computer as there is also trouble with the back up system.  Too many issues and not enough solutions.  Many thanks in advance!

    I do not have the disc to reload
    Why not?  You need your system dvds to troubleshoot & to reset/change passwords in view of your current OS listed in your  profile. 
    You can get replacement System Install & Restore CD/DVDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available.
    If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number. Here's a list of links to all of those - http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html Another resource:  International Support Phone #s.
    ===============
    I have to have the password, which I cannot remember or find.
    When selecting passwords, make sure it's one that you will NEVER forget AND no one else can figure out. 
    Old school--- > Print it out & keep in a safe place.  A place that ONLY you know about AND never forget.
    New school---> Get a password manager utility.  Highly recommend 1Password which is shareware.  Do a Google search for free password managers.

  • Keychain passwords no longer work with lion

    When browsing after upgrading to Lion, many of my passwords don't work any more.  When resetting a password for a site, I usually get a dialogue box to the effect "that password has been used recently, please select another."  The next time I log into the same site, I'm likely as not to get the same message "password incorrect," and must reset to a new password.  It gets old, and keeping track of the new passwords is a hassle.  I believe (but don't know) that key chain is responsible, but ...
    Any ideas?

    Had the exact same issue with my mini. I just reset the keychain. Basically removing all keychaines or saved passwords and starting over with having saved passwords for websites and system applications. If you go to Keychain Access in your Application's utility folder (easy: spotlight search keychain) then select File in the Menu Bar and then Delete Keychain. Those alerts for passwords will now go away.
    **Added Note** This will delete all saved passwords. You just have to save them by entering them again.
    Hope this helps.

  • When was an item last used in Keychain?

    I am trying to clean up the entries in my Login keychain.  A lot of the entries (passwords, certificates, etc) are cryptic, and it's hard to know what they are.  Is there a way to find out when an entry was last used?  When I say "last used", I mean last accessed by an application.  I do not mean last modified.  Thx

    I don't know that there's an easy way to figure that out, but for certificates, you can look at the expiration date.  Any certificates that have expired can be deleted, as they're of no use any longer.  Passwords can simply be weeded out if they're no longer useful.  And, of course, you should be able to reset the entire keychain without too much hassle, beyond re-entering passwords and restoring any important certificates that you have added.

  • Keychain directory disappears

    I've recently begun to have keychain issues. When I open Keychain Access, the only items in the keychain list are System and System Roots. When I do verification in Keychain First Aid, I get the following message:
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    Checking keychain configuration for mylogin (user ID=501)
    Home directory is /Users/mylogin
    Checked login keychain
    Error: login keychain not found
    Unable to get info for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain, reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory
    Checked default keychain
    Problems were found; you should choose the Repair option to fix them
    Verification failed
    Then when I do repair, I get this:
    Repair started
    Checking keychain configuration for mylogin (user ID=501)
    Home directory is /Users/mylogin
    Checked login keychain
    Error: login keychain not found
    Created a new empty “login” keychain.
    Checked default keychain
    Checked contents of ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
    Problems successfully repaired
    Repair completed
    I'm then able to add a password to my keychain, but within a few minutes, my entire ~/Library/Keychains/ directory disappears. I'm at a complete loss as to how to fix this, and extensive Google searching has yielded no similar cases. Any suggestions?

    Hi,
    I've been experiencing exactly the same problem for almost 2 months now. Have you figured how to solve it yet? It's really hassle to keep on entering your password everytime. Basically defeats the purpose of having a keychain.
    Thanks in advance

  • Possible / how to completely disable Keychain??

    Hi,
    I know Keychain has its fans, though I suspect most of them don't have to use it in a corporate environment, where AD users have to change passwords every month. It drives our users nuts (and me!).
    I know they only have to go into Keychain Access and reset it, and I've explained to them how to do that countless times, but they still get tied into knots with it. Far better for them to just re-enter their password for each network connection (only one in our case, so no great hassle).
    Don't want any advice on 'how best to use the Keychain', or to be told how wonderful it is. I simply want to banish it from our systems completely, for ever and ever (Amen!). Is this possible (short of screwing up the machine)?
    Any help most welcome thanks.
    I've already searched around but can find nothing about how to kill the thing. Does anyone else hate Keychain as much as me?

    Hi, Jack.
    By "AD" I presume you mean Active Directory.
    AFAIK, you can't:• For starters, some applications, like Mail, Safari, and others are "Keychain-aware" and depend on the the keychain and Keychain Services for saving and retrieving account and password info. It's also involved in saving certificates. Remove keychain and such apps are likely to break.
    • Second, it's a core part of the OS, specifically Mac OS X Security Services.I see your options as follows:
    1. You may want to see if there's a way to configure AD so it does not use the Keychain. However, this means users will have to enter their passwords every time unless AD provides some other secure method for saving them.
    2. You have an educational problem here, not a technical problem. Create a tutorial for them, including screen shots, showing them how to update the password. Define a Test User to use in the illustrations so you don't have to use your own account. Then given everyone a copy and place it on one of your servers so folks can download the tutorial when needed.
    Good luck!
    Dr. Smoke
    Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

  • Keychain fix?

    Anyone else have this problem? After downloading and installing the recent updates, Safari does not remember any of my logins. I opened up keychain and they are all there, but how do I get Safari to look at them?

    Glad I'm not alone... I'm having this problem as well.
    It happened when I first got my iMac Core Duo. I found that I could open Keychain Access and view all my passwords there, but Safari wouldn't bring up any of them. If I re-saved them, Safari would remember them again next time. So I figure okay, I can look them up in Keychain Access, re-save them in Safari, and eventually it won't be a hassle anymore.
    Then I install the latest update and it fricking happens again! Seriously frustrating. I do not want to re-enter them all after ever single update.

  • Problems with Keychain, login etc etc .... help please :-/

    Hi guys,
    My G5 iMac started playing up a couple of days ago.
    First of all in Mail it kept asking me for my password for my email account, it wouldn't accept it and kept asking me to set up a 'default Keychain' which I did but still the 'password' window appeared every time I opened Mail ??
    I ran Disk Aid and other than a couple of files out of order everything seemed fine.
    I looked on the Help menu for Keychain advice and ran Keychain Aid, upon completion it said there were problems ? didn't say what or how to fix them ?
    No passwords I entered into Keychain would work at all.
    Then yesterday when I turned my computer on it asked for my password ? it's never done this before ..... I entered it and when the computer restarted it was all different ?? There were files on the desktop from 2-3 years ago ?? and when I went into my Pictures, Documents, Music etc there were no files there from the last three years ?? real odd i thought. Opened safari and all my Bookmarks were from 2-3 years ago too ??
    Looked on here for hints and tips, did a 'safe' reboot ? installed my original OS X disc but ended up reinstalling OS X.
    Then every time I switched on or restarted, it would come up as my computer and ask me to enter my name and password, neither of which it would recognise ??
    Again off the installation disc I ran 'Disk Aid' with no problems then started to change passwords etc after logging in as a System Administrator in a new account :-/
    Going into Users via my new account I can see two old one's both bearing my name although slightly different. One I can see is from when I originally got this computer, the other is obviously my most recent ? as all my iTunes files, documents etc are there. All that is missing now is my Pictures as all that is in that file is iPhoto. Somehow all my saved pics etc ended up in a Pictures folder within my Home (folder/file ?) within my last account. Obviously as I can't log into that account anymore I can't access my Home menu under it :-/
    Any suggestions guys ? does it make any sense ? sorry to babble.

    If i go into Macintosh HD then down to Users I can see my two old Home folders. If i go into the most recent, like I said earlier there is only iPhoto in the Pictures folder, this is due to an error I needed to correct before all my hassle with Keychain and Passwords started. If I could log in to that Home folder I'd be able to access my pics but my Mac isn't recognising any passwords for it ??
    When you open the Finder window and you can see Desktop - Home - Documents - Music - Pictures and Movie folders there used to be nothing but iPhoto in the Pictures folder, however if i clicked on my Home folder in the Finder menu my pictures could be found within the Pictures folder in there.
    Although i can see my other Home folders under Users in the Macintosh HD, when I go into System Preferences - Accounts - the only one present is this new 'system administrator' one I set up yesterday ??

  • When I login I get a message "aosnotifyd wants to use your confidential information stored in "my name" in your keychain." How do I know if it is safe to allow this? Can anyone advise please?

    Every time I login I get the message "aosnotifyd wants to use your confidential information stored in "my name" in your keychain." How do I know if it is safe to allow this? Can anyone advise please?

    My immediate reaction is to deny.
    Have you downloaded or installed any application that may relate to the abbreviation AOS? It may not necessarily be the application's name, could be the developer or distributor.
    As it's occuring at log-in, go to System Preferences > Accounts > your account > Login Items and look for a related item. If there's one there, right-click (or ctrl click) on it and select Reveal in Finder. That will show you where the originator of the item is on your system and should give you more of a clue as to what it is.
    I'd remove the item from login items anyway (highlight and click the minus sign at the bottom of the window). There shouldn't be anything trying to use your keychain info to notify anyone.

  • How to use Keychain for multiple users on one computer?

    I have a new Macbook Pro with Yosemite.  I just moved over from PC for my work computer and the Keychain thing is killing me!  I am a social media consultant so I manage multiple accounts for multiple clients.  I need a way to log in and out as them on many different platforms.  The reality is that I am the only user but I log in and out of different things as if this was a public computer with multiple users. 
    PC allowed me a drop-down option with each login.  For example the email box could be clicked and then I could select the client email that I needed to fill in.  The password would then auto-populate.  Is there any setting I can change to make this happen on a Macbook? I have been logging in, deleting the info in Keychain, then logging in for the next client, delete...etc.
    Most password managers don't work because of this same problem.  Please don't recommend a password manager app unless it can handle logging in and out of (for example)10 different LinkedIn profiles.
    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    Tanja Turtsanyi wrote:
    I have a new Macbook Pro with Yosemite.
    Apple>About This Mac>More Info>Service
    Please read the warranty paperwork that came w/your computer.
    You have 14 days to return the computer w/no questions asked. 
    You have 90 days of FREE phone tech support on top of your standard 1 year warranty unless you also purchased AppleCare which gives you an additional 2 years of coverage plus FREE phone support.
    Strongly suggest that you take FULL advantage of the above before it runs out.  Let Apple deal w/the problems.
    Mac OS X (10.4)
    Conflicting info:  Please update/correct your profile so that you can receive the correct troubleshooting suggestions.  This will assist the users in trying to help you.  Thank you.

  • How can I use iCloud-keychain if i can not find my country in the country code list?

    How can I use iCloud-keychain if i can not find my country in the country code list?

    Welcome to the Apple Community.
    If your country code does not appear in the list…
    Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Keychain and enter your Apple ID password (Settings > iCloud > Keychain, from a mobile device)
    Select the ‘Create Different Code’ option. (Mobile devices only)
    Select the advanced option and choose whether to create a random code or no code, selecting the later allows syncing across devices but not with Apple’s servers.

  • I can't understand apple teminology - what is the difference between a keychain and a password - why does my mac keep asking me to type in the keychain - I don't know what it is or when it was created!!!

    I can;t understand the apple terminology - what is a keychain and how is it different to password?  When I set a new password it keeps asking me for the login keychain.  None of my passwords work for it and I don't know when it would have been created.

    A "keychain" is a secure database in which passwords are stored in an encrypted format to prevent unauthorized discovery of your passwords. Think of it like a bank safe deposit box in which you can safely store your passwords.
    If you have a problem with your keychain then perhaps you have not changed the passwords correctly or need to repair your keychain. You might try:
    Assuming that you are using a recent build of OS X, go to /Applications/Utilities and launch the app called Keychain Access. Go to the Window pulldown menu and select "Keychain First Aid". Enter your password, set the radio button to "Repair", and click "Start".

  • Keychain access application not working.

    keychain not working, click on the generic app. icon and it simply pops up and closes. reloaded osx10.4.3, but no results. anyone have suggestions?
    powerbook g4   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    Next step is to create a new admin user account, log into it, and see if the problem remains. If not, then it's a problem with the original account. If so, then the problem's system-wide.
    If the original account, you have two options: 1) try to find the corrupted file, maybe the com.apple.keychainaccess.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/. Move it to the desktop, log out and back in, relaunch Keychain Access. If that doesn't work, then check all the .plist files with something like Preferential Treatment. 2) reset your prefs in the new account and eventually delete the original.
    If system-wide, then reinstalling the OS using the Archive & Install option, saving user and network settings, might be your only option, especially since reinstalling the combo update didn't fix the problem.

  • Backing up and restoring Keychain file

    How can I backup the Keychain file and also load it on another mac?
    Thanks.

    We are talking about retrieving information from the copied keychain when access to the original machine is not possible
    You didn't say that in your previous posts (or I misunderstood what you did say). For this new situation, it seems trivial to create a new admin user account, using the same username/password combo as on the old machine's account, log into it, and replace the new login.keychain with the saved one, log out and back in. and everything in the keychain should be available.
    It would seem that pen and paper might be the most reliable way after all of retaining sensitive passwords
    I have a simple AppleScript which I use to generate a list containing the name, account username, and password for each key in my login.keychain. I use this list as a backup for all generic and webpage keys. You'll have to edit the resulting text file "Passwords" (saved to the desktop) to eliminate the garbage characters that are contained within. No need for pen and paper. Paste the below into Script Editor, run it, and click appropriately on the dialog boxes that pop up. It'll take awhile during the first pass, but subsequent runs only pop up the dialog boxes on new item. HTH
    <script>
    set osXKeychainScriptingPath to ¬
    (path to scripting additions from system domain as Unicode text) ¬
    & "Keychain Scripting.app:" -- one line
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    tell application "Keychain Scripting" to launch
    tell application "Keychain Access" to launch
    using terms from application "Keychain Scripting"
    tell application osXKeychainScriptingPath
    set KeyList to every Internet key of current keychain
    repeat with aKey in KeyList
    set theSecuridPIN to theSecuridPIN & (name of aKey) & tab ¬
    & (account of aKey) & tab & (password of aKey) & return
    end repeat
    end tell
    end using terms from
    tell application "Keychain Scripting" to quit
    tell application "Keychain Access" to quit
    tell application "Finder"
    open for access file (((path to desktop folder) as text) & "Passwords") with write permission
    set theFile to result
    write theSecuridPIN to theFile
    close access theFile
    end tell
    <script>
    G4 450 MP Gigabit   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

  • Mail & Mavericks & Keychain Access

    Hello,
    After updating to Mavericks (from Mountain Lion), I noticed that there's a new keychain called "local items" inside Keychain Access App.
    so I have a couple of questions regarding this and my usage of Mail:
    1) from what I read in this forum, "local items" is the keychain created by Mavericks, it should sync to the login keychain (which is usually, and certainly in my case, the default keychain, meaning it is in bold face on the left hand side of the Keychain Access window). And as far as I understand, if you have icloud enabled, this keychain would be called "icloud keychain", if not, it will remain the name "local items", is this correct? I do not want to have anything to do with icloud, so I don't have any icloud keychain. When I log into the my account on the mac both the login and the "local items" keychain are unlocked (I guess this makes sense if they are supposed to be synced. So basically this is my understanding of this "local items" keychain, please correct/inform me if this understanding is not correct.
    2) now, I noticed that the passwords that I typed in for my e-mail accounts (set up in Apple's Mail) are saved inside this "local items" keychain. So everything seems to be fine. However, I noticed that the passwords saved inside this "local items" keychain cannot be edited in the "access control" panel (this is accessed by double clicking the password item and click on the "access control" tab.) This is odd because all the other items in the "login" keychain can be edited in this way.
    3) so my main goal is to ask Mail to NOT remember my password (I know this is not the prefer setting for most users, but I prefer to have it this way). In Leopard, Mail had a little checkbox where you set up your account that asks the application to NOT remember the password. This is really handy because it prompts me to re-enter the password whenever I restart the application, which is exactly what I want it to behave. But since upgrading to Mountain Lion (I'm not sure how it is in Snow Leopard or Lion, as I jumped from Leopard straight to Mountain Lion, and now to Mavericks), this box has disappearred. I found a work around online. Before Mavericks, the mail account passwords are saved (if I remember correctly) in the login keychain, the work around works by saving (i.e. dragging) all your email  passwords into a separate/new keychain (let's call it Keychain A) which has a different password than your login keychain (which, by definition, is unlocked upon login). So I set this up and Mail automatically knows to prompt me to enter the password for Keychain A in order to access my e-mail account passwords. This doesn't behave exactly like unchecking "remember the password" box in Leopard, but it comes close. and I was happy with this work around. However, now having upgraded to MAvericks, Mail insisted on using "local items" as keychain, and keeps asking me the passwords for my e-mail accounts (NOT the  local item keychain password, since my local item keychain IS synced up with Login keychain, therefore they are both unlocked upon me logging in) so that it can store them. The thing is I do NOT want the e-mail passwords to be stored inside "local items" keychain (because I don't want account access to equal e-mail access (for reasons I do not want to get into, but I feel like this is not too much to ask and was possible before so why not now?).
    Could someone please help me out with this?  I've called Apple, and they were quite annoyed with me because the person I talked to keeps saying that I'm not using keychain for the way it is suppoed to be used, but my question then, is, if I canot get applications to use special keychains I set up, what's the use of the function "add new keychain" inside keychain access?  (in fact, the phone supporter basically keep saying "I don't know" to my questions and finally offered me to talk to a senior advisor, at that point I had to leave (and after 1hour on the phone I was quite fed up anyway). so I thought I should turn to the forum.....
    so a recap/summary:
    my login and local items keychain sync up fine
    but I don't want Mail to store my e-mail passwords in the local items keychain
    I want to make Mail use another keychain (i.e. a keychain I set up myself), can we possible to this?
    or another other work around that will make Mail to prompt me to enter passwords when I fire up the application (not constantly, but just when I restarting the application, OR after the computer wakes up)
    I'd appreciate any pointers!
    thank you very much!
    sakura

    I have the same concerns.  I'm frustrated that the Mail app doesn't currently allow you to use a separate keychain for the passwords.  After many years with Keychain I am being tempted to look to a third party.  Or perhaps it's time to look for a third party mail app?  This is a security issue since email is the primary way that a password change is verified with other accounts. 

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