Migration Assistant failed to move my Keychain passwords to the new Passwords app on my Mac. How can I migrate keychains to new passwords app locally? I have not found a way to export from the Keychain app. (Mac M4 Air, Sequoia 15.7.5, migrated from a 11" 2015 Air)
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.7
This article mentions that the iCloud passwords stay local when you turn off the synchronization. I just tried it on my Mac and the Passwords app did keep my passwords.
Now I've always had my passwords synched with iCloud. So, to go back to your original question, I'm not sure why your passwords were not migrated. I would have expected the iCloud keychain to move from the Keychain Access app to the Passwords app. When I look at my own Keychain Access, I still see the iCloud Keychain in the sidebar but it is empty.
You are right to be concerned about the Keychain Access app. Apple removed the secure notes functionality from the Keychain Access app when they introduced the Passwords app. (I know it's odd since passwords and secure notes are not related.)
Now this is what I would try to get the passwords on your M4 Mac: on your 2015 MacBook Air, turn on the passwords synchronization, do the same on your M4 Mac. Wait for the Passwords app on your M4 to show your passwords and then turn off the iCloud password synchronization on both devices.
The iCloud passwords synch is very quick. It takes a couple minutes at most. There are no other settings to check/turned on besides the Passwords settingsim System Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
Exporting iCloud passwords in Keychain Access in the CSV format doesn't work either on my end (Import and export keychain items using Keychain Access on Mac - Apple Support). The article states "If the Export Items menu is dimmed, at least one of the selected items can’t be exported". I can't export anything, not even a single password. It seems that the issue is not recent: What if EXPORT ITEMS if grayed out in key… - Apple Community
Were you able to export your passwords to a CSV file, it would be possible to import them in Passwords: Import passwords from another app into Passwords on Mac - Apple Support. By any chance, would your passwords be stored somewhere else, a place where you could export them in CSV format?
I'm running out of ideas to help you. A long shot: open Safari, click Safari > Settings, click the Passwords tab and see what it says. On my end, it only offers me to view the passwords in the Passwords app but, your situation being different, you may see something else.
Otherwise, please contact Apple Support directly.
Hi Steve, go to System Settings > [your name] > iCloud and make sure Passwords is turned on.
Thank you for the response, is that the only way? I was hoping to simply migrate directly from the old Mac app to the new Mac app, without sending my passwords over the net to a server and then back again to the same device. For whatever reason, Apple seems to made local migration, the most secure way, impossible - at least I haven't found a way. Apple is seemingly forcing users into iCloud. Secondarily, my iCloud account is always sending error messages (long story) about storage so I don't trust it to do anything. Anyway, if sending my passwords over the net is the only way, can you please confirm. I do appreciate your help.
Yes, this is the only way. The iCloud keychain (that has your website passwords, and which was also embedded in the Safari app) that was in the Keychain Access application was moved to the Passwords app. This is probably why your passwords weren't migrated.
I find the iCloud Passwords synchronization quite helpful because I own several other devices besides my Mac.
Thanks for the confirmation. My Mac isn't connected to iCloud, so no passwords stored there. The migration from old to new Mac was weirder than that, all my passwords did migrate, but into an invisible Keychain app on my new Mac. The Passwords app had nothing. So I currently use the Keychain app on my M4 Air. My concern is that the Keychain may essentially disappear in a future OS update, so I have to move the passwords to some other app.
Is the Passwords app functionality all tied to iCloud or can it function as a local app?
My 2015 Air died subsequently. Neither Mac was connected to iCloud (at all, not just iCloud keychain). As mentioned in the earlier post, my passwords do exist on my M4 Air, but in the Keychain app - I use that for now (OS 15.7.5). Apple apparently designed Keychain so it can't export to Passwords. So if I use Apple servers, I can get the local Keychain app on my M4 Mac to pass the passwords to the local Passwords app on the same machine? Then I can shut off iCloud, as I understand it. Thanks for your help. (The software engineer for the Keychain must have been a certain R. Goldberg)
So I did get iCloud set to 'on' for Passwords, but I don't see any syncing activity. Is this something like drive indexing where it takes a long time - I wouldn't expect so? Are there additional setting in the Keychain and Passwords apps to get them to sync?
A large fraction of my passwords are not stored in Safari, so while I might be able to export what Safari has, it doesn't address most of the problem.
I'll have to go back to Apple Support I guess. Thanks for the help, it is just bad software design with Apple's Keychain app.
Migration Assistant: Keychain passwords not in Passwords app
