The Mac Admin's Blog

Quite honestly, I think you’re putting the cart before the horse. Before tossing out the Keychain Access application I’d run through the steps necessary to cure whatever ails your keychain. For those tuning in at home, the first step is to launch Keychain Access and from the Keychain Access menu, choose Keychain First Aid. In the same-named window that appears, make sure the Verify option is enabled, enter your administrator’s user name and password, and click the Start button. If any entries appear in red, click the Repair button and click Start again. With a measure of luck, the red entries disappear and you’re left with nothing but black entries and keychains that perform as they should. If this doesn’t happen and you continue to have keychain problems, quit Keychain Access, go to your user folder /Library/Preferences, and move the com.apple.keychainaccess.plist file to the Desktop. This is Keychain Access’ preference file. If it’s corrupt it could be causing the problems you ex...

Fixing Keychain issues What is Keychain & how it works? The Keychain consolidates various p asswords and passphrases in one place and makes them accessible through a master password or passphrase . When an application (including the Finder ) needs to access a pass word stored in the Keychain , the application asks you to unlock the Keychain if it is not already open. However there are certain settings in Keychain application which, wh en done, system will not prompt you for password & l og you in straight away. Keychain Access & Keychain Minder These are two contributors to Keychain , of which Keychain Access being the main controlling system and Keychain Minder is used just to change the Keychain master password, specially in the case when you don't remember the old one. Changing the password with Keychain Access Go to Applications (Command+Shift+A) and Open Utilities. Locate Keychain Access & open it. Click on Edit and select Change Password for ...