Keychain Access fails after macOS Sequoia upgrade

Question

Keychain Access fails after macOS Sequoia upgrade

After upgrading to macOS Sequoia the Keychain Acceess App stopped working !

Even entering the right password two times, nothing happens.

So i debugged it in the CLI.

opened the App from the CLI

"/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Keychain Access.app/Contents/MacOS/Keychain Access"

Then chose "open keychain access".

Entered the password 2 times

Console Error:

Keychain Access[1705:41514] Initial auth failed: Error Domain=com.apple.LocalAuthentication Code=-1000 "ACM policy evaluation succeeded, but ACM is still requesting 1:1, 3:1, 15:1 on ACMContext 0 after a retry." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=ACM policy evaluation succeeded, but ACM is still requesting 1:1, 3:1, 15:1 on ACMContext 0 after a retry., NSLocalizedDescription=Fehler bei der Authentifizierung., BiometryType=1}

For me, it's clearly a software bug, so i ended up using the CLI tool "security".

You can import TLS Client certs etc., find entries.

E.g: (list keychains)

security list-keychains

@Apple -> fix the bug ?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 15.7

Posted on May 2, 2026 12:56 AM

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Answer 1

Zurarczurx

Level 5

4,443 points

May 2, 2026 1:28 AM in response to Frankenburger

We're not Apple, just users. I've never seen this. A bit more info might help someone fix it.

What did you update from ?

Was it a simple update from System Settings or did you reset your Mac, install Sequoia and migrate your data from a Time Machine backup?

What were you doing when you noticed that Keychain wasn't working?

In the absence of any other info I'd try a re-boot into Safe Mode first to see if that helps.

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Answer 2

May 2, 2026 2:05 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Hi,

a plain and simple upgrade from 14 to 15.

What it did:

1.) Found one hint in the discussion group:

sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus "$username" sysadminctl -secureTokenOff "$username" -password "$password" -adminUser "$adminUser" -adminPassword "$adminPassword" sysadminctl -secureTokenOn "$username" -password "$password" -adminUser "$adminUser" -adminPassword "$adminPassword" diskutil apfs UpdatePreboot / sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus "$username"

Username: Your username

AdminUser: Your admin user. (Mine == Username)

2.) Rebooted in safe mode. (No change)

3.) Searched for Swift Code which can explain the error (Found some hints on stackoverflow) -> Auth Flags wrong

4.) Started using the security commandline tool, which works and uses the same access frameworks as the GUI App ;-)

I'm quite happy with the gui though.

I can search, delete, export and import certs etc.

Password were migrated into the Passwords.app which works properly…

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