Keychain and multiple usernames - first choice of Keychain changed

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Level 1

37 points

Keychain and multiple usernames - first choice of Keychain changed

I did not immediately see a similar query to this admittedly silly question but it is annoying. So I will ask here.

I have two gmail accounts, one of which I had mostly forgotten about but which does reside in Keychain along with my primary gmail account I normally use. For as long as I have been using Keychain, when logging into gmail on my desktop, Keychain used the username/password of that primary account.

Today, however, it is insisting on the other account first. To get to the primary account, I then have to use my password to change the Keychain selection. As I said, this is a nit but it is annoying and I don't understand what changed. The primary is listed first in Keychain, it is alphabetically first, but Keychain jumps to the second one.

I might get rid of that old account, maybe this "problem" goes away with a reboot, I don't know. But does anyone know how to get Keychain back on track?

I had a similar issue with another account - Keychain figured out immediately to stop using the old username/password. But not this time.

TIA-

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 12.2

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 11:27 AM

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Answer 1

chuckefus Author

Level 1

37 points

Feb 11, 2022 4:11 PM in response to chuckefus

Well, despite it being a persistent problem this morning no matter how many times I tried to log in, on a reboot as I mentioned above, Keychain finally figured out that I did not want to use the other username/password. I think the questions still stands, since Keychain was persistent in wanting to use the undesired account before the reboot. I have never seen that behavior before.

And reboots are costly in terms of time.

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Answer 2

Feb 11, 2022 4:26 PM in response to chuckefus

Maybe I'm not understanding the issue, but wouldn't it suffice to delete the credentials for your secondary gmail account using Keychain Access?

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Answer 3

chuckefus Author

Level 1

37 points

Feb 11, 2022 5:15 PM in response to BlueberryLover

Yes, that would work too, as did the reboot. The secondary account, in my case, is not important but that might not always be the case.

I was hoping for something less surgical - Keychain previously used the selected account subsequently when this problem occurred before. This morning, it refused and I kept having to reselect the desired account. As I said, it's a nit but I was thinking I am missing some sort of quick fix.

[Side-note: I found out later this afternoon that 12.2.1 was being pushed to my machine, which is why the reboot happened. The push might have been interfering with Keychain for all that I know.]

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