Birdman16

Q: I can't turn off iCloud keychain

After my icloud keychain on my MBP running Mavericks failed to sync with my ios devices, I have been trying to turn off my icloud account on my mac as troubleshooting guides have suggested. When I uncheck the keychain icon I get a prompt that comes up asking if I want to keep a copy of the keychain on my mac, delete the keychain, or cancel. No matter which option I choose the icloud keychain is not deleted from keychain access, and the check box automatically re-checks itself. I can not turn off icloud without disabling keychain. Help!!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 12:35 PM

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Q: I can't turn off iCloud keychain

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  • by tgasc,

    tgasc tgasc Mar 27, 2015 9:19 AM in response to Birdman16
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 27, 2015 9:19 AM in response to Birdman16

    I have the exact same problem! I've never had iCloud keychain enabled because I simply don't think it's safe to do so, but ever since the recent updates this thing was enabled BY ITSELF!! None of my other devices uses iCloud keychain, but I still can't manage to turn off iCloud keychain on my Mac. It re-checks by itself as soon as I uncheck it. This is annoying!

  • by devilsh,

    devilsh devilsh Mar 27, 2015 9:30 AM in response to tgasc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 27, 2015 9:30 AM in response to tgasc

    Try this. Instead of logging out of iCloud on your iPhone, disable keychain. Then disable on any other device you have (iPad, etc).  Then turn keychain back on using your iPhone. Check you mac then.

     

    There are steps to get it to work but its a bit dodgy to isolate but typically involved turning it on and off on your phone. Best of luck!

  • by Ma'hu,

    Ma'hu Ma'hu Mar 27, 2015 9:43 AM in response to devilsh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 27, 2015 9:43 AM in response to devilsh

    I had to go into Disk Utility and Repair Permissions for it to eventually work.

  • by tgasc,

    tgasc tgasc Mar 27, 2015 9:55 AM in response to devilsh
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 27, 2015 9:55 AM in response to devilsh

    Thank you.

     

    By turning ON iCloud keychain on a device that never wants to use iCloud keychain (in my case - iPhone) in order get it disabled on my Mac sounds really silly but it worked. As soon as I set up iCloud keychain on my iPhone the option on my Mac was unchecked by itself, automatically, mystically  -- just like how it was turned on by itself.

     

    I didn't want myself to even get involved in this "iCloud keychain" thing since the beginning when apple launched it because I do not trust today's Apple anymore like I used to, but THANK YOU Apple for forcing me to upload all my passwords and account information onto your server!

     

    Now since I've managed to turn "off" iCloud keychain on all of my devices (well, at least they look like have been turned off), my next concern is that HOW CAN I remove all these sensitive and important account data from Apple's server?

  • by bjones3ptking,

    bjones3ptking bjones3ptking Apr 1, 2015 12:38 PM in response to Birdman16
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 1, 2015 12:38 PM in response to Birdman16

    Easiest thing to do is Move Keychain folder (User Library) to Desktop, Restart, Sign out of iCloud. Then put Keychain folder back into the User Library. Hope this helps.

  • by falleaf,

    falleaf falleaf Apr 3, 2015 12:24 AM in response to Birdman16
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 3, 2015 12:24 AM in response to Birdman16

    The problem you found this, maybe because when you activate keychain, your internet have some problem, then some how Internet Accounts cannot sync with other programs and other Apple Devices, like iPhone.. And the problem is that, on some of your devices, you didn't activate KeyChain.

     

    So, I did this way:

     

    1/ Activate keychain from iPhone (or some devices that you didn't activate yet or even activated, but you can turn of and turn on again).

    2/ OS/iOS will ask you to reset the Keychain, enter new Passcode and reset it in any other device.

     

    Automatically, in your MBP it will de-activate the keychain and request for new passcode. Enter again and turn on/off as normal.

     

    Make sure that when you do it, your internet must be good. Better use iPhone with 3G, even it may slow but it's sure to be connected and sync.

     

    Cheer

  • by KALLT,

    KALLT KALLT Apr 11, 2015 6:38 PM in response to tgasc
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 11, 2015 6:38 PM in response to tgasc

    I completely agree with you. I have tried several solutions, but only the one suggested by devilsh seemed to work, unfortunately. I didn’t enable iCloud Keychain either and I’m generally very reserved on cloud-based password storage. This setting should have never turned on, it shouldn’t even be possible to turn it on without prior password entry. At this point I don’t know what still remains in the cloud and when Apple deletes that data, if ever. As such I had to change all the passwords that I found in the keychain. Thank God that I don’t use Safari’s password auto-fill, but 1Password instead. That has kept most passwords out of Keychain, reducing it to ‘online accounts’ (Mail, Contacts, Calendar, LinkedIn, etc.), network passwords as well as several .htaccess prompts.

     

    This isn’t the first time. A couple of months ago I discovered that iCloud was turned on for Contacts and Calendars as well, even though I specifically wanted those to remain offline. It just takes a simple flick of a switch to upload very sensitive data across the Atlantic. I am so sick and tired of this disregard for user privacy on Apple’s part.

  • by Freek Dijkstra,

    Freek Dijkstra Freek Dijkstra Apr 24, 2015 7:33 AM in response to Birdman16
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apr 24, 2015 7:33 AM in response to Birdman16

    I had the same problem, and these solutions did not work for me:

    • Change security code
    • Uncheck "AutoFill user names and passwords" in Safari; reboot
    • Run first aid repair in Keychain Access
    • Turn it on on another Mac first

     

    In the end, I phoned Apple support, and was taken through these steps:

    1. Move contents in ~/Library/Keychains/ to some backup location (WARNING: this will remove your passwords from the Keychain, hence the backup)
    2. Remove contents of ~/Library/Caches; reboot; empty trash again (since some items can't be deleted before a reboot)
    3. Uncheck the Keychain item in the iCloud system preferences.

     

    This did work for me. I gradually restored my existing keychains. I suspect the above also works by retaining the login.keychain, but delete the rest.

     

    You can access the ~/Library folder by selecting the "Go" menu in the finder while you hold down the option/alt key: this will reveal the "Library" folder in your home folder.

  • by radacoca,

    radacoca radacoca Apr 24, 2015 7:23 PM in response to Freek Dijkstra
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 24, 2015 7:23 PM in response to Freek Dijkstra

    Reading a numerous sugestions and "solutions" on internet  I've tried dozens of options to turn off keychain, and this was my last hope. Nothing! It does not work for me.

    Sincerely hope that somebody from Apple will give us instructions how to turn off keychain.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-04-25 at 04.11.02.png

     

    plus, there is no way to sing out from iCloud, noo way!

     

    Screen Shot 2015-04-25 at 04.21.58.png

  • by Asterix.Obelix,

    Asterix.Obelix Asterix.Obelix Apr 27, 2015 3:16 AM in response to mx250man
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 27, 2015 3:16 AM in response to mx250man

    This works...do it. Thanks mx250man

  • by ibnabouna,Helpful

    ibnabouna ibnabouna May 4, 2015 12:39 PM in response to radacoca
    Level 1 (35 points)
    May 4, 2015 12:39 PM in response to radacoca

    I had the same problem and worked through it with Apple Support for two hours over the course of 3 days. Here is what worked for me.

     

    I. Delete iCloud Authenticators from Your Keychain

     

    1. Open Keychain Access.

    2. Select 'Passwords' from the Category area on the bottom left

    3. Type 'iCloud' in the search field on the top right.

    4. Delete all items that have your iCloud e-mail as the username.

    5. Also delete any items that begin with 'IDS'.

     

    II. Delete the Local Device ID from Your Keychain

     

    1. While still in Keychain Access, choose 'All Items' from the Category area.

    2. Type 'localdevice' in the search field on the top right.

    3. Delete any item that appears.

    4. Reboot your Mac.

     

    III. Turn off Keychain Passcode

     

    1. When the system reboots, try to disable iCloud just to see if it works. If not, continue to the next step.

    2. Open System Preferences > iCloud.

    3. Make sure you have an iOS device or another Mac logged in to iCloud with Keychain set to ON. You will need it for the next steps. 

    4. Click 'Options' next to Keychain and completely disable the security code so that everything in this dialog box is inactive/grey.

    5. On your iOS device or other Mac, disable the same security code feature.

    6. On your iOS device, now disable Keychain.

    7. On your iOS device, try enabling Keychain again. You should see the option of resetting your Keychain. Reset it!

    8. Now, on the troubled Mac, you should find that the Keychain option is disabled so that you can log out of iCloud.

     

    The key in all of this is to reset your iCloud Keychain, but before we do that, we need to delete some of these keychain items that may be causing conflicts and communication failures with iCloud.

     

    Please let me know if this helped you as it helped me.

     

    Best regards

  • by zackattackkx250f,Helpful

    zackattackkx250f zackattackkx250f May 15, 2015 1:58 AM in response to Birdman16
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 15, 2015 1:58 AM in response to Birdman16

    I had an issue signing out of an iCloud account because I couldn't disable iCloud Keychain. I discovered a fairly easy method to reset your iCloud keychain on the computer having issues without having to use any other devices or mess with any iCloud settings.

     

    Navigate to "~/Library/Keychains" (You can copy the path in quotations and use 'Shift+Cmd+G' in an open finder window to go straight to it)

     

    Screen Shot 2015-05-15 at 3.44.42 AM.png

    You should see a folder with a long alpha-numerical string for a name, and that's your iCloud Keychain.

     

    You're going to delete this folder and then empty your trash, but there's a trick. The keychain is likely going to be in use by your system which will prevent you from emptying your trash. Just reboot your computer and empty your trash immediately after you login. I had luck emptying my trash before all my startup items finished loading.


    Once you do this, restart your computer again. Then go into your iCloud settings in system preferences and try to sign out.


    Hope this helps!

    The best of luck to you all!

  • by radacoca,

    radacoca radacoca May 15, 2015 9:23 AM in response to zackattackkx250f
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 15, 2015 9:23 AM in response to zackattackkx250f

    Thank you very much! It works for me!

  • by radacoca,

    radacoca radacoca May 15, 2015 9:25 AM in response to zackattackkx250f
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 15, 2015 9:25 AM in response to zackattackkx250f

    thanks ...you've saved my i-life

  • by elisabug,

    elisabug elisabug May 18, 2015 5:47 PM in response to zackattackkx250f
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 18, 2015 5:47 PM in response to zackattackkx250f

    Thank you!  This worked well for me.

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