What is Keychain?
Apple’s password management utility on Macs. This utility can store all the passwords for your applications, websites you visit, and even sensitive information including credit card numbers or personal identification numbers for bank accounts.
So when you open a website that asks for your login password on your Mac, the Keychain app can provide the password if it’s on its password list. And, when the first time you start the Keychain app, it’ll have the same password as your Mac’s login password. Sometimes, it can lead to some problems when the Keychain password does not match with login password. The main cause of this problem would be using other authentication methods rather than Mac’s default local login settings.
In such circumstances, the keychain app won’t unlock for use with password management. Instead, it may show a warning message saying the program wants to use the “login” keychain. If the user cancels this message, the saved password information on Keychain won’t be available while using the program next time.
The first option you have in order to tackle this problem is to run a basic troubleshooting for your Mac machine. If it’s not helping you, follow the steps below.
How to Fix This Keychain Problem Within a Very Short Span of Time?
To fix password mismatch issues in Keychain, a user has to change his/her Keychain password in accordance with the login password of the Mac. If you want to do this, you’ve to locate the Keychain app on your Mac first. It’ll be located at Applications\Utilities. Firstly, launch this tool.
- In the left pane of the application window, you’ll see a tab “login” under Keychains. Open it.
- Click “Edit” from the menu at the top of the screen.
- Select the “Change Password” option for login.
- Enter the keychain password. (using which you could able to login successfully before the most recent password change).
- Enter your new password. It should match with the password you are using to log into your Mac. Finally, verify the password once again.
Reset the Keychain Password with Another Administrator
If you use the keychain with more than one administrator account on your Mac, then You can use that account to reset Keychain password.
- Log in to your with the credentials with another administrator account open the Apple menu and select the System Preferences option.
- Choose Users & Groups and click on the Lock icon and you can select the user name of the forgotten Keychain password from the drop-down list.
- Click on Reset Password and enter a new password, verify, and a password hint to reset it. Remember the password that you entered and click on change password.
After resetting the keychain password you can logout from the administrator account and log in using the MacBook account on which you had forgotten your Keychain password.
What If Users Can’t Reset Their Keychain Password?
If you forget your keychain password existed before the login password change, it won’t be possible for you to reset your keychain password. This situation can also happen if the Keychain becomes corrupt as well. In such situations, it’s necessary to manually delete and recreate your Keychain password. Here’s how you can do this.
Warning: Perform these steps if you’re an advanced user/ or in the presence of expert Mac personnel.
1. Select the Go menu in Mac Finder. Hold Option key while the menu is being displayed. It’ll display the hidden Library menu
2. Choose Keychains options from the Library menu and delete your keychain file from here.
3. Restart Safari or any other app that’s using Keychains.
4. It’ll tell you that the Keychain cannot be found on your machine. And, there’d be a button Reset to Defaults. Choose it and confirm your action.
5. At last, it’ll ask you to enter your login password as your Keychain password. Enter the password and restart the program. Your issue will be resolved now.
