Help Please my Keychain Login keeps popping up and refusing my password.

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Help Please my Keychain Login keeps popping up and refusing my password.

I don't normally have a login password on boot up but I have not used the login for so long I've forgotten my password.
OK so I used the MacBook 13 Install Disk and reset the password to something more memorable.
Then it advised me to synchronize this with the Keychain Password which I knew nothing about.
So I put in the same password in the keychain password box.

Now when I boot up I get a password box and my user name every time (I'd like to switch that off as I don't need a password, I'm the only user and nobody will steal this MacBook)

But even when I login with my new password, the Keychain Password box keeps popping up and asking for the pass. I type in the one I had set and it tells me that's incorrect. So the box pops up again and again.
Next it came up every time I tried to send or receive email and asked me to log the email password into the Keychain list as well so I did place a tick in that box. But still the Keychain keeps coming up.

Can I switch off all the BootUp adminstrator password boxes so it goes the way it used to when I first got it? Also can I kill off the Keychain thing as it has 18 entries in it that maybe can be scrapped. They're all my chat passwords and email server ones in the list.

I tried a Keychain Verify and Repair in the Applications Utilities and it says all is checking out fine yet it still won't accept what I type in the password box for Keychain. I'm only using a 7 letter password.

Can anyone solve this for me if I follow the list of instructions on how to turn all this password thing off? Hope so.
Thanks
Plado

MacBook 13, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Jul 26, 2008 11:00 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 26, 2008 12:22 PM in response to Plado

See if this helps: Mac OS X 10.4- Keychain Access asks for keychain "login" after changing login password. You can also try repairing the keychain:

Assuming that you are using a recent build of OS X, go to /Applications/Utilities and launch the app called Keychain Access. Go to the Window pulldown menu and select "Keychain First Aid". Enter your password, set the radio button to "Repair", and click "Start".

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Answer 2

Plado Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2008 12:35 PM in response to Kappy

I'm sorry to report this fact, but I already did do a Repair and a Verify and as I said in the text, it seemed to check out that all was ok yet when I next got a Keychain password box it still carried on rejecting it as before. I'm certain there was no mistake in the typing of the lower case password.

It just doesn't seem to register that the password has been changed. Since I am the administrator, I'm wondering why I can't just turn off all the keychain and login passwords to operate the way the did before.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 26, 2008 12:43 PM in response to Plado

See if this MacFixit tutorial helps:

Tutorial: Keychain issues; resolving

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:

Open Keychain Access (located in Applications/Utilities
Go to the "Keychain Access" menu and select "Preferences"
Click the "First Aid" tab
Make sure the "Synchronize login keychain password" box is checked
Close the Preferences window
Go to the "Keychain Access" menu and select "Keychain First Aid"
Enter your username and password
Click the "Repair" button

Another 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:

Launch Keychain Access (located in Applications/Utilities)
Click "Show Keychains" in the lower-left corner of the window.
Select the problematic keychain from the left-hand pane.
Navigate to the "File" menu and select "Delete Keychain '(name of keychain)'"
Check all options for deletion and press "OK"
Create a new keychain by going to the "File" menu, then "New" and selecting "New Keychain"
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, enable root user.
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 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, Keychain may be to blame.

For example, it appears that in some cases, failures in .Mac synchronization transfers are linked to issues with Keychain.

If you are having problems synchronizing data with .Mac servers, you may want to try the following process:

Open System Preferences and access the .Mac pane
Click the "Sync" tab
Uncheck the "Synchronize with .Mac" checkbox
Close System Preferences
Re-open System Preferences and repeat steps 1 and 2
Re-check the "Synchronize with .Mac" checkbox
If the above process does not re-allow synchronization, you may need to leave Keychain synchronization turned off in the "Sync" tab of the .Mac System Preferences pane.

The above comes from an article published on MacFixit.com.

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Answer 4

Plado Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2008 1:15 PM in response to Kappy

I've marked your reply as Helpful because there are a lot of things in there worth printing out and keeping for future use.
I have to say though that the complexity of managing the keychains is quite beyond me. I can't understand why the user needs to be involved in something so complicated with branches of settings pouring out like twigs on a tree.

During your compiling a very good course of actions to solve the problem I phoned the Support services of the Retailer who sold me the MacBook and he assumed my Keychain must be corrupt rather as you said, and his solution which has worked was to carry out the following actions.
MAC HD
Users
Library
Keychain Folder (DRAG and DROP it into the TRASH)

Apple
System Preferences
System Accounts
Click my name USER Admin
Click the LOCK to make the Authorizing password window come up
Enter my working password
Changes now not greyed out so change the tick from my Name to
Disabled
Then back to my name again.
REBOOT
I had to put a tick in the Keychain box after re-entering email passwords and then ....
At last the Password login box no longer shows up on the boot sequence or when trying to SEND or RECEIVE email

Looking back over it this too was a complicated sequence of repairs and I wonder why the Mac allows the machine to get into such a mess. A simple password prompt would save all the above having to be done. I'm exhausted. But thanks for your tips, I will keep them all on file and consider you've solved it for me by alternative methods. And thank you.

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