key chain access after upgrade to Monterey

ewatson61 wrote:

Turbo Tax 2021 wants the "login" keychain password to access my 2021 return for download. I updated to Monterey between finishing and filing that return and now. I have not intentionally saved passwords in "my key chain" ever. I cannot find the referenced item in Keychains. I have tried multiple possibilities: the pass word I used when I did the return, my computer login, my old intuit password, my new intuit password. What password does it want? Is there a time lock out after a certain number of attempts?

Normally that keychain login password is the same as your computer user login password. However it can be configured differently by the user. Also, if you changed your user password somewhere along the way, it might be looking for a PREVIOUS version of the password. This can in addition be complicated by the user of FileVault or other type of full disk encryption.

Another question: is this your personal Mac, or is it an employer's managed computer?

One other place where you can look for the right password (in addition to the Keychain Access app in the passwords section) is in Safari (assuming you used Safari as your browser to access the Intuit web site) in Preferences => Passwords. If you use something other than Safari, other browsers have a similar compendium of passwords as well.

If you remain frustrated by this, the simplest approach might be to contact Intuit directly, and they can reset your password there after verifying your identity, which they have various ways to do for their customers.

I don't believe you will be locked out after some number of failed attempts.

In the vein of 20-20 hindsight, this sort of thing (clearly some incompatibility between Intuit's system and the MacOS for this special instance of how your Mac got updated) is why I never make use of Intuit's offer to store my personal tax files in their password-access encrypted online system. I purchase their tax software each year and store everything locally with on site and off site backups stored under encryption that I set up myself.

ewatson61 wrote:

I do not use Intuit's Server. TT is the desk top program and I have used it since 2016 ... I think I did not "save" the 2021 return though it is filed and I kept a hard copy and I can look at it in TT and I can download a PDF. I am assuming I can save the .tax2021 file if I can get past the "login" keychain password... the pass word I noted to protect the file in TT while I was working on it and because I though there might be some cross talk I do not know about or understand; my Intuit password and Apple password.

When TurboTax asks you to encrypt your return and you agree to, you use a password to access it and it is stored on Intuit's servers. TurboTax does not make that clear, but that in fact is what happens. You can only access the file via the Intuit servers after that and only with the password that you provided at that decision point.

So you are certainly using the Intuit servers, that's where your return is. With the online version of TurboTax or with the desktop version. I always say "no" to the encryption question because of this.

I can't tell remotely what has happened here. Millions of people do use TurboTax and some select the encryption option and others do not. I think the vast majority have no issues, but obviously a glitch here.

I am guessing Apple will say you aren't entering the correct Keychain password and Intuit will say you aren't entering the correct Intuit/TurboTax password. I think the reason Keychain even came up is that normally the encryption password would be stored in your Keychain (whether you realize it or not) in which case simply logging into your account when you start up your Mac would unlock the Keychain and accessing the tax return would be transparent to you (you would not have to enter anything, it would just download form the Intuit servers and open for you, the required password would be provided behind the scenes by the Keychain).

The Keychain is used by MacOS in the background, whether you choose to use it in iCloud or not.

I think you should pursue this more with Intuit. Your tax return is on their server (you can verify that with them, if you chose to encrypt the return, which they recommend when you start the program, it is on their servers) and you have a right to access it, even if somehow you don't have or remember the password needed.