Sequoia: Keychain Access cannot create a new secure note

The link you give is to the Keychain Access User guide. The URL is support.apple.com/guide/keychain-access/kyca2268/mac. It is only about secure notes in Keychain access. I will reproduce the full text of the link here for your reference:

Store confidential information securely using Keychain Access on Mac

You can use Secure Notes in Keychain Access to store confidential information. This information can be completely unrelated to your computer, such as combinations to locks, personal identification numbers (PINs) for bank accounts, credit card numbers, confidential notes, cryptographic keys, and any other information that you want to keep private.

Create a Secure Note

1. In the Keychain Access app  on your Mac, select a keychain in the Keychains list.

2. If you’re not sure which keychain to pick, it’s recommended that you use iCloud Keychain to store secure notes. Notes that you create are available and updated across your devices (when you’re signed in with your Apple ID).

3. Choose File > New Secure Note Item.

4. Type a name for the note to help you remember what it is.

5. In the Note field, type or paste the information you want to preserve.

6. Click Add.

View the contents of a Secure Note

1. In the Keychain Access app  on your Mac, select Secure Notes in the Category list.

2. Double-click the note, then select the Show Note tickbox.

3. You are asked for your keychain password if you haven’t selected “Allow all applications to access this item” in the Access Control pane.

4. Type your login password to see the note, then click Allow or “Always allow”.

5. If you want this note to be secure, don’t click “Always allow”.

Thanks for pointing out that Notes has this facility though. I did a bit of digging, and I think the link you meant to supply was this one: Lock your notes on Mac – Apple Support (UK) (this URL for clarity support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/notes/not28c5f5468/mac).

Vladimiro Sassone1 wrote:

I do have FileVault on of course, but locked notes are shared on all devices, I am wondering whether the level of encryption is as good as keychain access...

Notes themselves have the same level of protection as other iCloud data. See iCloud data security overview - Apple Support

A locked note has an additional layer of protection.

Keychain is still there, you just need to find it

Spotlight Search >> Keychain

Be aware, one can no longer create New Secure Notes

Migrating Keychain Access secure notes to… - Apple Community and thanks to @MrHoffman for that information

It may not be exactly what you are looking for but you can lock a note and if you are using iCloud+ and have Advanced Data Protection turned on they are encrypted:

Lock your notes on Mac

If you use iCloud notes or notes stored on your Mac, you can lock notes you want to keep private, so only people who know the password can view them. You can use the login password for your Mac to lock and unlock notes, or create a custom password. If your Mac or Magic Keyboard has Touch ID, you can also choose to use that option to unlock your notes.

WARNING: If you forget your custom password and can’t unlock your notes with Touch ID on your Mac or Magic Keyboard, you can’t view your locked notes. Apple can’t help you regain access to those locked notes, although you can create a new password that lets you password-protect any notes that you want to lock going forward. See Change your password for locked notes.

When you unlock locked notes, the lock icon next to the notes and in the toolbar appears unlocked . When you close all locked notes, the lock icon appears closed .

Advanced Data Protection

iCloud encrypts your data to keep it secure. Advanced Data Protection uses end-to-end encryption to ensure that the iCloud data types listed here can only be decrypted on your trusted devices, protecting your information even in the case of a data breach in the cloud. See how your data is managed...

Because Apple does not have the keys required to recover your data, only your account recovery methods can help you get your data back if you lose access.

If Keychain Access is deprecated, how do we manage TLS keys and certificate settings on macOS? Please do some research and cite your references before posting things.

Barney-15E wrote:

Owot wrote:

The link you give is to the Keychain Access User guide. The URL is support.apple.com/guide/keychain-access/kyca2268/mac. It is only about secure notes in Keychain access. I will reproduce the full text of the link here for your reference:

You are looking at the Sonoma guide. The URL is the same. Select Sequoia on that page's popup menu instead of Sonoma.

I'm sorry, you are simply wrong. If you go to the URL support.apple.com/guide/keychain-access/kyca2268/mac then it takes you to this page

I gave the correct URL in my response.

To anyone else reading - look at the Notes help to see how to store secure notes in Notes in future, but unfortunately there is no migration path from Keychain Access secure notes so they must be transferred manually.

I see you can not lock a note if it contains a pdf, whereas you could include pdf file in keychain and have them protected.

In hindsight, I should clarify. If you have any existing data in Keychain Access, I recommend moving it.

I have quite a few random-password-thingys in Keychain Access. These aren't secure notes. They are just passwords but not associated with a web site. I was testing SMB/VPN/Sequoia and was connecting to my Linux file server. I don't log in very often and wanted to get my exact password. I had to use Keychain Access. It was quite buggy. The password window kept closing automatically.

Luckily for me, I can just pull all these old passwords off using one of my older computers running Ventura or Big Sur.

I've got about 50 items in the Keychain Secure Notes. Where did they go after in installed Sequoia?

Fortunately, I have an older MacBook Pro where I can still use Keychain Access. But what an aggravation it will be to discover some of their important stuff has been wiped by upgrading to Sequoia!

Paul Johnson13 wrote:

I've got about 50 items in the Keychain Secure Notes. Where did they go after in installed Sequoia?

Fortunately, I have an older MacBook Pro where I can still use Keychain Access.

You can still use it in Sequoia.

But what an aggravation it will be to discover some of their important stuff has been wiped by upgrading to Sequoia!

My secure notes are still in there. However, I just create a locked Note, now.

Owot wrote:

The link you give is to the Keychain Access User guide. The URL is support.apple.com/guide/keychain-access/kyca2268/mac. It is only about secure notes in Keychain access. I will reproduce the full text of the link here for your reference:

You are looking at the Sonoma guide. The URL is the same. Select Sequoia on that page's popup menu instead of Sonoma.

so I understand there is a serious risk (if not the certainty) that secure notes will be gone soon... I've been editing one for about 10 years, it contains all vital information for me, losing would be catastrophic. Any suggestions on what i should be doing to avoid that? Thanks

Vladimiro Sassone1 wrote:

vital information for me, losing would be catastrophic.

Never put all your eggs in one basket.

You can use a locked note. You can use an encrypted drive. If you don't want to turn on FileVault, then you can encrypt an external drive with a different password and use that. You can create an encrypted disk image.

Doogy wrote:

This is and will be a very troublesome situation for me!!!!

hundreds and hundreds of secure notes and passwords on multiple mac since introduction of the keychain access on mac os x!!! with oldest mac now with high sierra and newest just upgraded to sequoia and realizing this hectic issue to come soon!!!

why why why!!!??? Apple…

What exactly is the problem right now? Keychain Access is still on your Mac. Mine still has the secure notes I created long ago.

I am disappointed with the deprecation of creating new Keychain iCloud Secure Notes too. Will our old secured notes still be there? If so, I found that I can just reuse old notes. That seems to work for me (That is, supplementing old notes with new information).