Message requesting use of Keychain

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Level 1

12 points

Message requesting use of Keychain

Each time I start-up my MBPro (Mountain Lion) I receive a message that some "program" [i.e. something like 'assistanttd' or other] "wants to use keychain login" with the place to enter the password. This also happened with Lion prior to installing Mountain Lion.

This is annoying to me and I would like to find a way to avoid having to enter my password each time I boot-up.

I haven't found a place in System Preferences or elsewhere to have the password automatically fill-in the password or to change it so that I would not have to enter the password.

I would appreciate your help and suggestions.

Thanks.

Vernon

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 6:20 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 3, 2012 7:20 PM in response to VRS

Back up all data.

Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Keychain Access in the page that opens.

Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window.

If the lock icon in the top left corner of the window shows that the keychain is locked, click to unlock it. You'll be prompted for the keychain password, which is the same as your login password, unless you've changed it.

Right-click or control-click the login entry in the list. From the menu that pops up, select Change Settings for Keychain "login". In the sheet that opens, uncheck both boxes, if not already unchecked.

From the menu bar, select Keychain Access ▹ Preferences ▹ First Aid. If the box labeled Keep login keychain unlocked is not checked, check it.

Select Keychain Access ▹ Keychain First Aid from the menu bar and repair the keychain. Quit Keychain Access.

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Answer 2

VRS Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 4, 2012 7:43 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks Linc Davis for your reply. Here is additional information:

The "program" is 'assistantd'.

Clicked on "login" which is unlocked and did a search for "assistantd" under Keychain Access/login which search gave "assis" and then the item listed was "com.apple.assistant".

The listing under "Kind" is "Application Password" and then gave access date.

However, there is no way I can find to change a password there.

Thanks for you help and will appreciate any other suggestions, tool

Vernon

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 4, 2012 8:01 AM in response to VRS

Did you take all the steps suggested?

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Answer 4

VRS Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 4, 2012 11:56 AM in response to Linc Davis

Yes, I took all of the steps you suggested.

Here is additional information:

The "program" is 'assistantd' which is requesting the use of Keychain Access and asking for my password.

After bringing up Keychain Access, I clicked on "login" which was unlocked.

I did a search for "assistantd" under Keychain Access/login which search gave "assis" and then brought up a window called "Keychain Access" with an item listed as "com.apple.assistant".

In that window under "Name" was "com.apple.assistant" follwed by "Kind" which said "application password" and was followed by "Date Modified" giving the current date; followed by "Expirres" with "--" and then Keychain with "login" .

I right-clicked (control-click) the line with "com.apple.assistant" which brought up a window "com.apple.assistant". Under "Access Control" there is a place which I checked "Allow all applications to access this item" followed by the statement "Access to this item is not restricted". Previously checked was "Confirm before allowing access."

So, although I could not find a way to change a password there, I hope by changing the access selection my problem will be solved.

Thanks for you help and will appreciate any other suggestions, tool

Vernon

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 4, 2012 12:59 PM in response to VRS

Problems such as yours are sometimes caused by files that should belong to you but are locked or have a wrong owner. This procedure will check for such files. It makes no changes and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it, then drag or copy it — do not type — into the Terminal window:

find . $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID $ -ls

Press return. The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

Post any lines of output that appear below what you entered — the text, please, not a screenshot.

If any personal information appears in the output, edit before posting, but don’t remove the context.

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Answer 6

VRS Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 4, 2012 1:48 PM in response to Linc Davis

Here is the Terminal Info:

-bash: /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app: is a directory

laptop-2:~ Vernon$ find . $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID $ -ls

15348653 8 -rw------- 1 root staff 656 Jul 3 16:21 ./.viminfo

1655824 96 -rwsr-xr-x 1 root staff 48840 Oct 20 2008 ./Library/Application Support/RealNetworks/RPDLAgentHelperE

14329673 0 drwxr-xr-x 3 root staff 102 Sep 6 2011 ./Library/Caches/com.adobe.air.ApplicationInstaller

14329676 104 -rw-r--r-- 1 root staff 53248 Sep 6 2011 ./Library/Caches/com.adobe.air.ApplicationInstaller/Cache.db

9741304 8 -rw-rw---- 1 root admin 144 Aug 26 2009 ./Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroPref

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 4, 2012 2:11 PM in response to VRS

You ran Keychain First Aid, and it found nothing wrong?

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Answer 8

Aug 4, 2012 2:37 PM in response to VRS

I am having the same problem ever since go live.

Followed the steps outlined, and no problem was found. 2 issue persists one being shown in the picure below, and the second is a message I keep forgetting to take a shot of is concerning assistantd.

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Answer 9

VRS Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 4, 2012 3:57 PM in response to Linc Davis

Yes, I used Keychain First Aid/ Repair but after receiving your question, I used it again and this is what was returned:

Repair started

Checking keychain configuration for Vernon (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/Vernon

Checked login keychain

Checked settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Checked default keychain

Default keychain is set to ~/Library/Keychains/Keychains/login.keychain (instead of ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain)

Default keychain set to ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Warning: to use the passwords stored in “login.keychain”, you will be required to manually unlock that keychain. If this is not what you want, use the Keychain Access application to copy those items into “Vernon”, or delete the “login.keychain” keychain.

Checked keychain search list

Checked contents of ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Checked contents of ~/Library/Keychains/Keychains/login.keychain

Checked contents of /Vernon.keychain

Problems successfully repaired

Repair completed

Vernon

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 4, 2012 4:15 PM in response to VRS

Back up all data.

For some reason, you have keychains where they don't belong. You need to move

~/Library/Keychains/Keychains/login.keychain

to

~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

As for /Vernon.keychain, I have no idea what that's doing there, and it makes worry about what else might be wrong with your setup. You should move it to the Keychains folder in your home folder.

You will then need to delete those keychains from the list in Keychain Access, and add them back. When prompted, don't delete the files, just the references.

Finally, run Keychain First Aid again.

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Answer 11

VRS Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 4, 2012 6:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

I have searched manually and with spotlight /Users/Vernon and have not found ~/Library/Keychains/Keychains/login.keychain or /Library/Keychains or /Library listed on my MBPro Mountain Lion!

I would appreciate your suggestions where/how I should look for these items.

Thanks, Linc Davis, for all of your help.

Vernon

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Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 4, 2012 6:19 PM in response to VRS

You can get to any file by selecting Go > Go to Folder... from the Finder menu bar and entering the path; for example, "~/Library/Keychains/Keychains/login.keychain".

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Answer 13

VRS Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 4, 2012 8:13 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis, thanks for all of your help but I am at wits end! :-( After locating the file above, I attempted to move it. However, someway I managed to delete it and when I attempted to restore it, it was not restored and trash no longer has it!

I use Time Machine for backup which was running but I do not find it on Time Machine.

I do not know what to do now except I do have a similar keychain logins on my iMac. How can I transfer a copy over to my MBPro?

Thanks for your patience, help and suggestions

Vernon

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 5, 2012 7:12 AM in response to VRS

If you're trying to restore a file in the home Library, you first have to open the enclosing folder, as described above, then enter Time Machine.

Transferring files between computers can be done over a network, for example with File Sharing, or with an external storage device such as USB flash drive.

Apple - Support - Mac 101

Apple - Find Out How - Mac Basics

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