Keychain very slow and unresponsive

My Keychain has become very slow and unresponsive. After I entry three characters in the search field, it beachballs for what feels like eternity before allowing more input. It does work, but very, very slowly. It feels like it’s somehow corrupted.


Back in the day I seem to remember a ‘Repair Keychain‘ in Preferences; no longer.


I can't export the data and create a new chain since the Export option is greyed out.


I'm running Catalina (10.15.7) on a 27-inch late 2014 iMac. Everything's up-to date and the machine runs perfectly otherwise.


Anyone else had this issue?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 19, 2023 6:01 AM

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Posted on May 19, 2023 5:45 PM


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28 replies

May 19, 2023 2:15 PM in response to Jack Holland

Another test you can do is the following: create and log into a new, basic, admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac and see if the problem persists. This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide.


Note:  do not launch any 3rd party apps in the account so as to not install any of the supporting files that most create.


If the problem isn't present then your original account probably has software installed that is causing the problem.  


May 20, 2023 11:24 AM in response to Jack Holland

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.  


There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   


Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.


There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  


Also, unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they aprovide false secutiry from a privacy standpoint.  Read these two articles: Public VPN's are anything but private and Former Malware Distributor Kape Technologies Now Owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and a Collection of VPN “Review” Websites


That being said uninstall ClamX, Gemini 2, NordVPN and Wipe according to the developer's instructions.


You can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name.  For the software mentioned you'd do the following search(es): 


1 - Name contains Gemini2

2 - Name contains macpaw

3 - Name contains wipr

4 - Name contains clamx


Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.


FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  


If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.


Note:  if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode.  This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.


May 19, 2023 6:36 PM in response to Jack Holland

Are you being forced to use Nord VPN by work or school. if not uninstall it.


Here an indication of the problem but doesn't show the cause exactly...


Free RAM: 17 MB


Supposedly MacOS can deal with so little RAM by using Virtual Memory, but every time I've seen a report with less than 100 MB or so the Mac is having problems.


You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx


Thanks to Jack-19…

It may be wise to run SMART Utility to check the drives' health. 


If those are OK, then...


To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...


Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.


Does it work in the new account?


May 19, 2023 9:00 AM in response to Jack Holland

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...


EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/


Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…


Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

May 20, 2023 6:30 AM in response to BDAqua

I restarted without the VPN. Made no difference to Keychain problem.


On Catalina unchecking everything is a laborious process: local copies have to be made



Possibly a dumb question, but if I just cut iCloud access to my Mac (pulled out the Ethernet and switched of WiFi) might this achieve the same and?


Just to repeat, the Mac is as zippy as a nine-year old quad core i5 can be. I'm not having any problems with any other aspect of the computer.

May 20, 2023 10:00 AM in response to BDAqua

This was a a bit of a disaster. I moved the Keychain to the new user account (overwriting the existing one). It seemed to work, but would not fill my passwords automatically. When I returned to the other account and moved the keychain folder from desktop to library it's not beachballing – but all my passwords have gone.


Currently desperately trying to reinstall older version of Keychain from Time Machine.

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Keychain very slow and unresponsive

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