Keychain Secure Notes deprecated?

A few thoughts:

1. I strongly doubt Apple will just delete your Secure Notes and will instead migrate them automatically to a new app just like they migrated all your passwords to Passwords.
2. That new app may simply be an added category in the Passwords app (like some other password products), a different new app, Locked Notes in Notes, &c.
3. You can still EDIT existing Secure Notes. So edit them as needed. If you have to add a new Secure Note (and don't have an alternative app) try editing an existing Secure Note such that it contains multiple pieces of info. Of course, you may want to update the Name of the Secure Note to indicate multiple use.
4. It wouldn't be fun, but you could spend a few hours (depending on how many Secure Notes you have) copy/pasting your Secure Notes one at a time into a Locked Note in the Notes app. This is because it doesn't appear you can export existing Secure Notes. Either a new page for each Secure Note, one big Locked Note with everything, or something in between. I'll probably do this purely as a safety mechanism. If I do that, I WON'T delete them from Keychain Access because ultimately Apple will probably automatically migrate them somewhere, just like they did our passwords. If so, I'll just delete my Locked Note(s) after giving it some time to make sure their new home is stable.

Again, I STRONGLY doubt Apple will just delete the billions? of Secure Notes of it's of users. That would be pretty bad PR. Bad enough for above the fold coverage in newspapers, magazines, and the evening news.

But it sure would be nice if they simply let us know what they have planned, or at least gave some reassuring info.

Pierre Froelicher1 wrote:

I used Secure Notes in Keychain a lot.

Past tense noted.

After some search I found that the KEYCHAIN ACCESS app IS still available.. and the Secure Notes are still there.. but.. what is they plan.. Will KEYCHAIN ACCESS remain? One cannot even access it with iOS.

It's impossible to speculate on what Apple will do in the future. But looking at what Apple is currently doing with iOS is always a really good guess as to what will happen on the Mac next year.

Apple has nothing written.. but it seems they want us to use the allmighty NOTES app, and use passwords there. Is that a safe place for sensitive Information?

Yes.

Will Secure Notes exist in future OSs?

Again, no one can predict the future. But it is safe to assume that Apple doesn't have any plans to arbitrarily delete user data. If Apple wants to move users of Secure Notes over to a new platform, I'm sure they will come up with a way to get that done.

O wanted to store sensitive Information and .. it is very dificult.. IT is changing so fast, if you do not look you might write down your sensitive information in a deprecated technology that 10 years later is no longer around.

Indeed.

Where would I store sensitive Info?

You should always store sensitive information in at least two secure locations, perhaps more. If those locations are digital, they should be encrypted with a secure password. iCloud is a great data sync service, but it should not be considered guaranteed safe. Always keeps backups.

Just a note of caution if folks are going to use a third-party app to copy their Secure Notes out of Keychain Access, rather than manually copy to something like a Locked Note in Apple Notes.

Be sure the privacy policy of the third-party app is that they will never have access to data stored, even if only temporarily, in the app.

Personally, even if they claim they won't look at it, I wouldn't trust it.

Going from Keychain Access to a Locked Note is all in the Apple ecosystem, so they already have my trust or I wouldn't use them.

Even then, if using the copy/paste method, make sure you remove the last thing you pasted from the clipboard.

And if you're using a third-party tool that uses multiple clipboards, first, it's another third party app that, like I mentioned above, could have access to your data, but at the very least you would want to ensure all the clipboards that contain sensitive information are cleared.

I too just copied & pasted about 12 secure notes (individually) to Apple notes & then locked them-what I did was use my third party app (Text Sniper) from the Apple Store because it easily grabbed all info - the name, date created, date modified & the actual notes too. Text Sniper made it easier & more detailed for me.

After I verified it was correct and locked in my Apple Notes I deleted those secure notes from the keychain-some were under login and some were in iCloud. I am frustrated that Apple did not notify us users that secure notes creation was no longer being offered in the keychain- ALSO, it is not even posted in the Keychain User Guide for Sequoia.

There is a data field in Passwords that is called Notes. I successfully imported Roboform Safe Notes into Password. I exported Safe Notes into csv file and uploaded into Passwords. I first exported a password from Passwords to csv file to get the field labels then copied my data into the file - you only need the title and the note fields. The only issue I have is that I cannot share these notes in Passwords as I can with true password entries. If you don't care about sharing those notes this approach works fine. Obviously delete the css file when done.

Pierre Froelicher1 wrote:

Where would I store sensitive Info?

I'm big on paper that's stored in a secure, fire-proof container. Although I've heard that "kids today" can't cursive, I suspect it will be a long time before the skill is completely lost.

Hi Pierre, two comments/ideas for you, both of which were helpful to me. First, I discovered that you can create a folder for your locked notes. In theory you could call it "Utilities" or "boring stuff that you kids shouldn't worry about, move along, nothing to see here, really I mean it". 😀 But more importantly, only the first line is visible in the list view. If you create a bunch of locked notes in a folder, people snooping would only see the 1st line of the note. So, you keep the real data in the 2nd line and below. I literally moved all of my "Secure Notes" into individual locked notes yesterday (in a folder) and I'm super happy with how it works. (I'm befuddled as to why Apple is being so cryptic about this, and not providing a clear K-Base doc that talks about the Secure Notes going away. Very unlike Apple, and it's frustrating. This totally blindsided me (and most of us). As for Tip #2:

Not to open a can of worms, but while we all trust our kids of course, accidents happen, and kids get curious. If you do need to have a family "shared" computer, I'd very much suggest creating a second user account for your kids (a "Standard" user, not "Admin"). Any computer we've had as "shared" had this setup and it works perfectly. My kids are adults now - but this is how they used our family computer. It worked so well. If you need additional help with that topic, it's worth a new thread, as it can get into iCloud stuff, shared apps and documents, etc. But it's not difficult. Hope this helps!

(Thanks to you Pierre and everyone else for this important discussion!)

I heard for years that storing printed versions of this type of important info in "fire-proof containers" or a "fire-safe" would be a good idea. Then we had a friend lose everything in a fire. They taught us that "Fire Safes" and "Fire-Proof containers" are not intended to withstand actual fires; but are built to allow a short amount of time for you to grab the papers and get out. And the time is not long, unless you spend a fortune. So... that taught me a valuable lesson. The key is redundancy. A container like this + other storage methods is a good idea.

All of this is to say I share the original post's concerns. I've been using secure notes for many years. I find it frustrating that Apple wouldn't include it in the new Passwords app, which is very well executed otherwise.

my 2 cents.

steve.o wrote:

Again, I STRONGLY doubt Apple will just delete the billions? of Secure Notes of it's of users. That would be pretty bad PR. Bad enough for above the fold coverage in newspapers, magazines, and the evening news.

Great suggestions! I do suspect, though, that the number may be less than "billions." I'm guessing that the reason the feature was essentially deprecated is that not very many people use it. But, just a guess!

But it sure would be nice if they simply let us know what they have planned, or at least gave some reassuring info.

This is Apple we're talking about....

steve.o wrote:

But it sure would be nice if they simply let us know what they have planned, or at least gave some reassuring info.

In the years I have been using Apple Devices

Apple has always done what is in the Best Interests for Apple

It would reasonable and based upon past history.

That is not going to change any time soon

Nor will the practice of No Divulging what is still in the pipeline

At least, not until they ( Apple ) decide to make thing known to the public

I found the Keychain app but when I opened it my notes were missing. Where can I find my old secure notes?

iSeekTheGrail wrote:

The key is redundancy.

Yes.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

iSeekTheGrail wrote:

The key is redundancy.

Yes.

Yes.