Jun 23, 2016 Forgot your Mac Password? Reset it Without Losing Data nor Install Disc (OS X 10.5 and older) - Duration: 11:19. Snazzy Labs 1,769,942 views. How do I reset my Keychain Password in OSX (El Capitan)? 1) Click on an empty spot on your desktop to bring up the Finder menu on the top left of your screen. 2) Click on the “Go” option and then select “Utilities” from the drop-down menu. This means all your keychain items are available across all your Apple devices, and can even been seen in iCloud.com. This is slightly different from a local keychain, which only saves the passwords to the device’s storage. ICloud Keychain essentially synchronizes your local keychains across all your devices.
Step two: Reset Keychain Password If First Aid is unable to repair your Keychain problem then you may need to reset your Keychain. Launch the app and choose Preferences from the Keychain Access menu. Jun 03, 2020 Mac computers come equipped with a Mail App to help organize your e-mail accounts. This article will show you how to reset your e-mail preferences to the default settings on Mac OS X. How To Reset Your Mail Preferences The procedure is as follows: Select Finder in your Menu Bar and open the 'Go' menu (at the top of the screen). Performing a factory reset on your MacBook or Mac can solve many macOS problems, and is essential if you're selling. Here's how to reset a Mac, whether it's an iMac, Mac mini or MacBook.
Tutorial: Resolving Keychain Issues
If you can't access your keychain, or forget your password If you can't get into your keychain file because you've forgotten your password or the keychain file appears to be corrupt, there are a couple of options.
First, if you've forgotten your password, you can use the 'Keychain First Aid' utility to make the keychain password the same as the login password. This can be accomplished via the following process:
1. Open Keychain Access (located in Applications/Utilities)
2. Go to the 'Keychain Access' menu and select 'Preferences'
3. Click the 'First Aid' tab
4. Make sure the 'Synchronize login keychain password' box is checked
5. Close the Preferences window
6. Go to the 'Keychain Access' menu and select 'Keychain First Aid'
7. Enter your username and password
8. Click the 'Repair' button
The second option is to completely delete your keychain then recreate it. This routine is useful if your keychain appears to be corrupt or otherwise inaccessible. This can be accomplished as follows:
1. Launch Keychain Access (located in Applications/Utilities)
2. Click 'Show Keychains' in the lower-left corner of the window.
3. Select the problematic keychain from the left-hand pane.
4. Navigate to the 'File' menu and select 'Delete Keychain '(name of keychain)'
5. Check all options for deletion and press 'OK'
6. Create a new keychain by going to the 'File' menu, then 'New' and selecting
'New Keychain'
7. You can now make this keychain your default if you desire by selecting it, then
going to the 'File' menu and selecting 'Make '(name of keychain)' Default'
Login as root and perform repair In some cases, problems with keychains can only be resolved when logged in as the root user.
First, you want to enable the root user:
How To Use Keychain On Mac
1. OS X Mountain Lion: Enable and disable the root user
2. OS X Lion: Enable and disable the root user
Reset All Keychains Mac
3. Mac OS X 10.6: Enabling the root user
4. Enabling and using the 'root' user in Mac OS X
After enabling the root user, and logging in under this account, again open Keychain Access. First attempt repairs using Keychain First Aid, and failing that, delete then recreate the keychain as described above while logged in as root.
Persistently asked for stored passwords If you are persistently asked for passwords in various applications that you have specified should be remembered in a keychain, your 'login' keychain may not be active for one reason or another.
Navigate to ~/Library/Keychains/ (this is the Library folder inside your user's home folder). Find the file named 'login.keychain' and double-click it.
Failing that, select the 'login' keychain within the Keychain Access application and make sure it is the default keychain by going to the 'File' menu and selecting 'Make 'Login' Default'
Turn off Keychain synchronization in applications having problems If specific applications are experiencing issues when accessing password-protected material, the Keychain may be to blame.
The above comes from an article published on MacFixit.com.
A Mac OS X feature that’s been around for decades now is the keychain. Your account keychain on your MacBook stores all the username/password combinations for web sites, file servers, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers, and the like, allowing you to simply waltz in and start using the service (whatever it is).
Sounds downright convenient, doesn’t it? And it can be, but you had better watch your step.
Three massively big problems are inherent with using keychains:
Anyone can log on as you. If your keychain is unlocked, which happens automatically when you log in, all someone has to do is sit at your desk, visit a site or connect with a server, and bam! They’re on. As you. Think about that. And then think how many times you get up from your desk, just for a second, to grab another Diet Coke or a doughnut.
You’ll forget your passwords. If the keychain file is corrupted —and it can happen — your passwords have gone to Detroit without you. Either you’ve got them on paper hidden somewhere, they’re on your recent Time Machine backup, or it’s time to change your online persona.
Keychains need yet another stinkin’ password. Yep, that’s right — your keychain can be locked (either manually or, with the right settings, automatically), and you have to remember yet another password/passphrase to unlock your keychain. “When, oh when will the madness end?”
From a security standpoint, keychains should be completely off-limits for anyone who’s interested in maintaining a well-locked-down machine (whether it’s a Mac used in a company office or a Mac shared by a classroom). Unfortunately, Lion creates a keychain automatically for every user, so you have to monitor (and delete) your keychain data manually. (Sigh.)
However, if you’re the only person using your MacBook and it resides in your home and you absolutely must use keychains, you can display them all for the current account from the Keychain Access application, conveniently located in Utilities within your Applications folder. Click the desired category tab and then click an item in the keychain list to display or edit all its information.
Anyone can display and edit server and site information just by launching this application! (It’s just as bad to set the Automatic Login feature to an admin-level account.)
To help lock things down — at least when it comes to your Internet communications — follow this path:
To display your Internet passwords, click the Passwords category.
Click each Internet password to select it in the list and then click the lowercase i button at the bottom of the window to display the information on that password.
Click the Access Control tab to display the settings.
To minimize the damage that someone can do with this password, you can select the Confirm before Allowing Access radio button. And for yet another level of security, select the Ask for Keychain Password check box.
Click the plus sign button at the bottom of the Keychain Access window to add a new password. Type a name for the item, the username that you typically type to gain access, and the password for that server or site. Then click Add and cross your fingers.
To display all the keychains you can access, choose Edit→Keychain List. To create a brand-new keychain, choose File→New Keychain. Mac OS X prompts you for the filename for your new keychain file. In the New Keychain dialog that appears, enter a catchy name in the Save As text box.
By default, the keychain file is created in the Keychains folder — a good idea — but if you want to store it elsewhere, click the down-arrow button next to the Save As text box and navigate to the desired folder. When you’re ready, click the Create button. Now you need to enter yet another password, type it again to verify it, and click OK.
To lock or unlock your login keychain, click the Lock icon at the top-left of the Keychain Access window. (Unlocking your keychain requires you to enter your login password. Go figure.)