mavericks update keychain access not accepting passwords

If I reset the keychain it will create a new empty keychain.

Normally the old loginkeychain should be still there (I will make a backup for safety) ?

Then can I import this old login keychain into the new and it will work ?

Hi cliff from gray lake,

Welcome to the Support Communities!

The articles below may be able to help you with this issue.

Click on the links to see more details and screenshots.

iCloud: Frequently asked questions about iCloud Keychain

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5813?viewlocale=en_US

iCloud Keychain keeps your Safari website usernames and passwords, credit card information, and Wi-Fi network information up to date across all of your approved devices that are using iOS 7.0.3 or later or OS X Mavericks v10.9 or later.

Can I set up iCloud Keychain so that my data isn't backed up in the cloud?

Yes. When setting up iCloud Keychain, you can skip the step for creating an iCloud Security Code. Your keychain data is then stored only locally on the device, and updates only across your approved devices.

iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Keychain

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4644

I don't seem to have any iCloud Keychain items anymore.

If you turned off iCloud Keychain on all your devices, your iCloud Keychain is removed from the cloud. If you also chose to delete the keychain items from your devices when turning off iCloud Keychain, your iCloud Keychain will also be removed from those devices. You will need to set up iCloud Keychain and add items again. Apple can't recover your iCloud Keychain if you turn off iCloud Keychain on all your devices and choose to delete your iCloud Keychain locally on all your devices.

On OS X, if you used Keychain Access to reset your OS X Keychain, OS X will delete your iCloud Keychain items.

Try using Keychain First Aid (under the Keychain Access menu) to verify and repair keychain settings and permissions. If that doesn't help, you will need to set up iCloud Keychain again. If you need to reset your OS X Keychain again, temporarily disable iCloud Keychain in iCloud Preferences before resetting your OS X Keychain.

Resetting your keychain in Mac OS X

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1544?viewlocale=en_US

OS X: Keychain Access asks for keychain "login" after changing login password

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1631?viewlocale=en_US

OS X Mavericks: Lock or unlock your keychain

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13823?viewlocale=en_US

Cheers,

- Judy

I have just bought a brand new iMac 27" and after the first re-start it started going crazy asking me for keychain password that I had never setup!

It froze everytime and since I had just opened it, I decided to re-install the SW, but now I am afraid it will start doing it again.

I read Judy's links but could find any specific mention to the problem encountered. Any ideas on how to tackle this issue?

Had the same problem !! What happens is mavericks creates a new keychain called login

Open up your keychain app and on the left you will see the keychain folders what you need to do

Is create a new keychain with any name you want fatter that right click on the newly named folder

And select set as default :: reboot and you should be ok

I had same problem and apple support fixed it in 5 minutes.

1. Go to Finder

2. Look for library in favourites.

3. If not there hold down option key and click on GO in the top menu

4. Scroll down to Library and click on it

5. Look for Keychain folder and click on it.

6. Inside KEychain folder is a single folder we random numbers and letters.

7. Drag this folder onto your decktop.

8. Re-boot and you should be good to go.

9. If Ok drag the folder off your decktop into trash !!

Very easy

Steve Singapore, THIS absolutely solved the problem. I even took my mac to the Genius bar and they had 2 other macs in the back with the same symptoms. No one knew what to do. Drinks on me next time you're in LA. Thank you my good sir!

Sorry Steve. No drinks for you. Your method didn't actually work.

After following your instructions and rebooting if had seemed like everything was fine. However after about 10-15min I was prompted with:
"CalendarAgent wants to use the "login" keychain."

Entering my login came up with the same prompt again. Seems my mac is not remembering my own password? Not sure.

Hitting Cancel makes the prompt come up immediately again. Pressing Cancel enough times brings up a different prompt. Not a single password works. The promts will come happen sooner depening on which app you open. Safari, Chrome, Preferences, iTunes, Calendar. Usually after opening any 3 of those my MBP slows to a near grind until nothing (including Finder) is no longer clickable requiring a Forced Shutdown.

These prompts didn't start happening until a recent update for Mavericks (Saturday November 2nd, my computer ran fine, but hadn't restarted in a while. Sunday November 3rd is when I restarted, and the prompts started happening. Something was changed on Apple's end. An update was made, something...whatever it is...it's disastrous.

Order in which prompts occur:

(1). CalendarAgent wants to use the "login" keychain.

(2). com.apple.iCloudHelper wants to use the "login" keychain.

(3). Messages Agent wants to use the "login" keychain.

(4). AddressBookSourceSync wants to use the "login" keychain.

(5). com.apple.internetaccounts.xpc wants to use the "login" keychain.

(6). imagent wants to use the "login" keychain.

(7). com.apple.iCloudHelper.xpc wants to use the "login" keychain.

Something I might add; I noticed that the lock icon on the prompts are just a little different. One has a shield on the lock, and the other has a terminal on the lock. Not sure if that means anything specific or not.

If anyone has any suggestions I'm very open to them.

Cheers,

-NK

I've got one for you - I'm entering a plethora of past passwords, instead of my current PW, into these boxes at random, INCLUDING my apple password, just to get all the popup windows to go away.

ScopedBookmarkAgent - my goodness, when will it STOP, and, what is with the RANDOM assignment of all of these different passwords I've had?

Seems like Mavericks has gotten all mavericky on the PW's.

I went to Judy's suggeston - but now it's actually stuck in an "endless loop" of all the popup windows as noted above, mining for every password I've ever had on the machine and with apple.

Woe is me - I can't even get into any other places but the popup windows.

I was having the same problem and was so frustrated. the thing that worked for me was resetting my keychain by following the steps below:

1. Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.
2. From the Keychain Access menu, choose Preferences.
3. Click General, then click Reset My Default Keychain.
4. Authenticate with your account login password.
5. Quit Keychain Access.
6. Restart your computer.

now, will this same problem occur each time I update my OS X..? I'll find out.

hope this helps..

Thanks Steve Singapore, this is the one that appears to have fixed it for me. I have been searching for days without success for a fix; simple instructions great.

This is what I was told to try by my brother’s programmer friend for the constant barrage of pop up requests for my keychain access to “login” by multiple apps including CalendarAgent etc. :

1). Open finder menu, Select Go from the top bar and Utilities Folder. Scroll down and find Keychain Access. Open Keychain Access.

2). Click on the name of the Keychain on the left pane which you are having the multiple requests for passwords from, in my case it was “login”.

3). Select Edit from the top menu. Select “Change Settings for keychain “login”. Now there should be a pop up window with checkmark boxes asking you:

Lock after __ minutes of actvity.

Lock when sleeping.

Select uncheck or change settings to your preference. Mine was default set to lock after 5 minutes hence the constant barrage of password requests. This took care of it for me after trying to repair keychains and resetting keychain passwords to match my admin password to no avail. Good luck.

This worked for me, I tried Steve Singapore's solution first and like others, it was only a short term fix. The solution below makes perfect sense when you think about it! No more password prompts..

doximum wrote:

This is what I was told to try by my brother’s programmer friend for the constant barrage of pop up requests for my keychain access to “login” by multiple apps including CalendarAgent etc. :

1). Open finder menu, Select Go from the top bar and Utilities Folder. Scroll down and find Keychain Access. Open Keychain Access.

2). Click on the name of the Keychain on the left pane which you are having the multiple requests for passwords from, in my case it was “login”.

3). Select Edit from the top menu. Select “Change Settings for keychain “login”. Now there should be a pop up window with checkmark boxes asking you:

Lock after __ minutes of actvity.

Lock when sleeping.

Select uncheck or change settings to your preference. Mine was default set to lock after 5 minutes hence the constant barrage of password requests. This took care of it for me after trying to repair keychains and resetting keychain passwords to match my admin password to no avail. Good luck.

Hi Steve,

I followed your steps 1 tp 9 and it seems to work (I do not use iCloud Keychain):

The new local keychain is now empty (useless for me) previously it was a copy of of the login keychain (done automatically when I moved to Mavericks).

Nevertheless I still have an issue with mail.

For all other applications: Safari, iTunes, iMessages ... when a login is needed the apps are looking for the passwords in the login keychain.

But for mail the maill app is looking for passwords stored in the new local keychain which looks strange. Of course as it is now empty there is no more passwords.

Is there a way to force the mail app to pick the passwords of each accounts in the login keychain ? (where they are all stored).

Thank you Steve!! Solved the problem right away on my 2012 MacBook Pro. I don't understand how Apple let this problem happen to begin with, probably because they only care about iPhones now. At least we still own products that can actually accomplish something useful.

Resetting the keychain - what a mess - Didn't work. Verification didn't work, and Repair was even worse.

I've rebooted several times; have to use Activity Monitor to stop Mail (Mail cancels restart), etc.

So, here's what I had to do:

1. I went to Finder>Go to Folder> "~/Library/Keychains
2. I dragged the ~/Library/Keychains folder to the desktop.
3. Reboot. Logging back in was no problem.
4. I battled with mail for a while under Preferences>Accounts. No luck.
5. I finally logged onto my ISP and "changed" my email passwords (not really - I used the same ones as before) - otherwise, the mail account on my laptop could not connect, while I'm connected here on my desktop (and the Air at home, and the iPhone, too).

iMessage has been another mess. Logging into iCloud from desktop no problem.

1. System Preferences
2. Accounts
3. enter password for iCloud
4. enter password for internet accounts (I had to delete several that did not work with "Notes")

Seems to be working now - what a mess, Apple. This was a straight upgrade from Mountain Lion.

And, what is it with the popup "Enable Access for Assistive Devices" - open system preferences with every boot? I don't have any, don't want any & don't need any (yet). I have to cancel it every time.😮

Good luck, everyone!