iCloud Keychain removal

Question

iCloud Keychain removal

I need to set up a new 16" MacBook Pro without iCloud Keychain automatically downloading the corrupted keychain from my old 2012 MBP! The keychain was automatically downloaded to a new iPhone during manual setup.

The 2012 MBP keychain is corrupted. PLUS a new Wi-Fi password in Keychain was incorrect...was the password hashed...is this Apple's end to end encryption?

How can I completely remove the old keychain from iCloud? Apple's iCloud Keychain instructions say that only if the keychain information is deleted on all devices will the Keychain data be deleted from iCloud servers. I have an Apple Card on my iPhone that I'm afraid to delete but I can manually delete all the saved passwords.

My other concern is that my photos and videos currently stored in iCloud as well as the originals stored on the my devices might be deleted.

With all the changes new to Catalina, I'm afraid to use these instructions. How can I securely delete the entire Keychain from my old 2012 (short of a clean install)? Thanks in advance for any help!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 11, 2020 9:59 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Apple recommended

tygb

Level 9

62,595 points

Mar 11, 2020 11:53 PM in response to kathleenfromroanoke

See the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT202755

you don't need to open keychain access ( right click on login and click on delete references , this will delete the passwords in it , you can create a new keychain , but you don't want to loose the passwords , so resting keychain is use an iPhone and Mac , sign with same Apple ID and password on both and then reset the iCloud Keychain also don't click on reset iCloud Keychain ( it will remove the passwords stored in iCloud ) further consult apple support https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT201232

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Answer 2

Mar 13, 2020 11:59 AM in response to tygb

Thanks for your reply! But actually, I do want to remove the passwords stored in iCloud and start over fresh. Since both my old 2012 MBP and new iPhone are already trusted devices and set up for two factor authentication, using an iCloud security code is not an option. Also my iPhone is using iOS 13.3.1 and the instructions in that article are for iOS 12 or earlier. So my goal is to get rid of all the stuff stored in iCloud (other than my photos and videos) from the old 2012 + now also from the iPhone since it downloaded the iCloud Keychain, start fresh with the new 16" (and old 2012 + phone)...but I need a device for the 2F id and apparently I will need to reset my phone since Apple only removes the iCloud Keychain if keychain is deleted from all devices. I'm going in circles!

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Answer 3

tygb

Level 9

62,595 points

Mar 13, 2020 11:55 PM in response to kathleenfromroanoke

After erasing the hard drive completely and installing the os every system file , including keychain , inbuilt applications are installed once again the complete previous data is also erased , the system is new and passwords saved in keychain access are also deleted .

If iPhone is configured with Mac , disconnect it by sign out the desired data can be deleted from the iCloud server .

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Answer 4

Mar 24, 2020 1:50 AM in response to tygb

So if I am understanding you correctly, first I should do a clean install on my old MBP and then sign out of iCloud Keychain on my phone and remove the old MBP as a trusted device (Is that what you mean by " if iPhone is configured with Mac")? Will this remove the copied iCloud Keychain on my iPhone from the iCloud server? Next when I set up my new 16" MBP and sign into my iCloud account, won't it pick up the old iCloud Keychain from the iPhone? I appreciate your patience! I already deleted the keychain on my old MBP and everything was removed except a bunch of certificates...and even though many of them had expired, the system wouldn't allow me to delete them. I guess the clean install will take care of them. So I am wondering if I sign my old MBP back into iCloud Keychain, will it will delete the corrupted stuff I deleted from the iCloud server and also my iPhone? I did manually delete all the passwords from the iPhone after copying them on a piece of paper. I just want to be sure every trace of the corrupted data now stored by iCloud keychain is removed so I can build a new keychain. I know I sound like an idiot! Sorry! But thanks for your help.

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