Macintosh Keychain

Keychain Password

What is Keychain?

• Your Keychain is what stores your Macintosh computer's login information.
• Keychains are stored in the user's library under Keychains.

Common Problems

• When a password for the user login is changed through the Gustavus Account Applications page the Macintosh computer will often lose the synchronization of your Keychain password and it will continuously prompt you with a message similar to this:

• Message will prompt often when logging into the computer and is also seen often when opening a web browser (e.g.Firefox, Safari, etc), or when opening the Mail application.
• When the user tries to type in their current password, it will shake the window and reject the password.

Solution

To solve this problem we can force the Keychain Folder to create a fresh Keychain with the user's new login information.

Older Computers and Operating Systems

1. Click on the desktop so you see Finder in the upper left corner.
2. Select Go at the top of your screen
3. For MacOS 10.12 (Sierra) users, Hold down the Shift key and notice that a new choice, Library is presented in the list.
4. For Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), or 10.11 (El Capitan) users, Hold down the Option key and notice that a new choice, Library is presented in the list.
5. Click on Library. For Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and earlier, an alternative way to get here is to follow Go > Computer > Macintosh HD > Users. Select the username of the user that is logging into the machine. Select Library.
6. Under Library find the folder that is labeled Keychains.
7. You should see several items in the folder. Drag all items in the folder onto the desktop. Verify that the Keychain folder is empty. The items on the desktop are now a backup of the keychain.
8. Restart the Computer.
9. The user should log in. If prompted with a Keychain window, select Create a new Keychain.
10. Test to make sure it has been successful. Open a web browser and open the Mail application (if applicable). If no more Keychain messages are prompted to the user, then the Keychain has successfully created a new login.keychain for the user.
11. If successful, drag and drop the backup of keychains into the trash bin.

At this point, the Keychain prompt should have gone away. To double check, try restarting the computer again.

Newer Computers and Operating Systems

1. Click on the desktop so you see Finder in the upper left corner.
2. Select Go at the top of your screen
3. Select Go to Folder...
4. in the URL bar, type /Users/username/Library/Keychains
   1. Make sure that username is their username or the account that is having the keychain issue
   2. You can press tab to autofill each section.
5. You should see several items in the folder. Drag all items in the folder onto the desktop. Verify that the Keychain folder is empty. The items on the desktop are now a backup of the keychain.
6. Restart the Computer.
7. The user should log in. If prompted with a Keychain window, select Create a new Keychain.
8. Test to make sure it has been successful. Open a web browser and open the Mail application (if applicable). If no more Keychain messages are prompted to the user, then the Keychain has successfully created a new login.keychain for the user.
9. If successful, drag and drop the backup of keychains into the trash bin.

At this point, the Keychain prompt should have gone away. To double check, try restarting the computer again.