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Broken Keychain

Since upgrading to Leopard my keychain will not store new passwords, or retrieve previously stored passwords.

I have:
-installed the keychain update, and the 10.5.1 upgrade.
-renamed ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain and /Library/Keychains/System.keychain and created new ones.
-deleted the new keychains and restored the backups.
-deleted everything and started from new, blank keychains

Now I have a blank keychain that nothing will save to. Does anyone have any other ideas?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Nov 21, 2007 12:41 PM

Reply
21 replies

Nov 25, 2007 4:18 AM in response to baltwo

Unfortunately, reinstalling the 10.5.1 didn't do it for me, neither the keychain update.
So after spending two weeks on this i decied to do a complete clean reinstallation of the whole system which is a complete dissaster and, although fixing the problem, causes alot of work to get everything back to where it was before starting the upgrade.

On another topic, the screen image still flips itself upsidedown and sometimes flashes i various colours when quitting applications, disc images cant be ejected except from within the disctool, among some other obvious bugs - its completely different topics, but having theese problems both before even after a totally clean installation says something about the state of the software.
My suggestion to anyone thinking of taking the step to upgrade their PPC to Panther; Don't do it, not yet atleast, this is at best a beta and should not be viewed as a commercial software.

And having done a few Vista installations those are in general a pain with similar problems, even though I never thought I'd do the comparison, but in conclusion having 50 machines I will not upgrade them to leopard - no way.

The user fourums are great though, and most other apple products.

Nov 29, 2007 7:51 AM in response to Rdyornot

I too have been experiencing Keychain problems ever since I upgraded to Leopard (not archive and install).

I use a DSL modem and I have to connect to the Internet each time I turn on the computer; usually it happens automatically, but now Keychain won't remember my password, and the "Internet Connect" window pops up... I deleted my keychain, created a new one, threw away preferences, deleted my network connection and created a new one... It works for a while, then the problem comes back.

Also I'm wondering why my Keychain says that the "com.apple.systemdefault" self-signed root certificate is "not trusted". Same thing with the "com.apple.kerberos.kdc". (They are located in my System Keychain). Are those certificates from my previous system, Tiger? If yes, can they be one of the causes of my Keychain issues?
Thanks!

Dec 2, 2007 10:34 AM in response to NatalieF

Update : I called Apple Tech Support and after trying again to delete preferences, recreate a connection, etc., I was told that I should do an Archive and Install. I did that, and the problem was still there : the "Internet Connect" kept popping up almost every time I tried to connect to the Internet.

I finally decided to erase everything and do a clean install. I spent a few hours backing up my all data, reinstalling the system, reinstalling all my applications... Everything worked fine for 2 days, then suddenly, the dreaded "Internet Connect" window reappeared, prompting me for my password!

So this is definitely a bug; a "clean install" didn't solve anything. I'll just patiently, and hopefully, wait for a version 10.5.2 that will solve this problem.

Dec 4, 2007 6:06 AM in response to NatalieF

Just a note, FWIW: I made another call to Apple Tech Support where I talked to an engineer, who said they never heard about this problem, but since I've been doing a clean install (without adding any applications other than the ones on the Restore disk) and the problem was still there, the problem might be because of my DSL modem. It is indeed an old modem: Speedstrem 5360, with no firmware update available.

Also, the problem is intermittent; that is, when I click "Connect" on the menu bar, I get the Internet Connect window, but when I click "Cancel", it connects itself automatically about 75% of times. I guess I can deal with that.

(I haven't tried to repair permissions when booted from the DVD so I'll try that, thanks for the tip.)

Dec 11, 2007 9:18 AM in response to Lighthouse 365

What I've tried:
Archive and install.
The keychain patch.
Keychain First Aid
Repaired Permissions.
Booted up from the installer disk and renamed users/passwords.
Tried removing the keychains from the Library and used Back-up/iDisk to restore.
Upgraded to 10.5.1

I'm still asked for passwords for Mail, Entourage, Skype, Messenger all the time. What I find curious is that I'm never asked to permanently remember passwords in Keychain as I was pre-Leopard...

Dec 21, 2007 11:07 PM in response to killer bob

Finding this post is encouraging (just to know I'm not the only one!)

I installed Leopard and have had the same problem with keychain asking for passwords for different things ALL the time... (mail, .mac, etc)

Early on, I tried my best to monkey with some files within the library (specific to .mac and keychains) and now I've created an even more glitchy experience with keychain. After trying to re-install the system software, after creating a new keychain, after running the keychain repair, and resetting .mac, I still get prompted to enter my password ALL THE TIME.

I have backed up all important files and am ready to erase and re-install everything from scratch (hoping that a clean install will fix everything). Sounds like this might not fix everything, huh?

I appreciate your contributions and suggestions.

Currently I have .mac sync turned off because everything seems glitchy... ugh.

Dec 22, 2007 2:29 AM in response to thegrids

Hi

Have done three Leopard installs so far - one on an imac power pc when I lost my admin privileges but managed to get in even though it was file vault protected with an eight character password I'd been using since system 9. In this instance Keychain first aid restored my ability to save passwords but I lost all my saved ones.

On the MBP install my main account was file vault protected with same old 8 character password and I lost all access to that account. Luckily I had another user account and was able to access my old files by going to the main users folder and opening the sparse image - the password worked. I've had to create a complete new user and drag all my documents, preference files and settings across. I did have a full and recent backup though. Now Keychain is going through the painful process of relearning all my passwords - the copy on .mac did not sync.

Have also just done a complete clean install on an old 12inch G4 and that went without hitch.

My advice? If you are going to "upgrade" to Leopard then take a full and complete backup including writing down old passwords and stuff you may have lurking about in preference files - copy them somewhere safe.

Turn filevault off if you have it running.

Then create another user account with a simple short password. Give this user full admin privileges - this provides your way back to your files if you get locked out of main account.

Then run the"upgrade".

The best alternative though is to start again - backup everything, then do a complete clean install and the moment it is done then use software update or the downloads here on the support site to get Leopard completely current before you start using it.

I'm a mac evangelist and have faithfully upgraded over the years but I have never been so disappointed by such a buggy and dangerous upgrade as this Leopard thing. And I'm not so sure that the results are even worth it once you do upgrade...

Not sure if any of this helps but it might warn save someone hours of misery.

Andrew

Dec 22, 2007 6:23 AM in response to Rdyornot

Same problem here on my Macbook.

What I found is that the administrator only had read rights to ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain and /Library/Keychains/System.keychain. I changed this to read&write and now the keychain at last is able again to save passwords. Then I ran the Keachain Firts Aid and now everything seems to be fine again!

Broken Keychain

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