Multiple Keychains

There is no easy answer there. One is a login keychain. This is the traditional keychain from earlier OS versions. The iCloud keychain is a new keychain that is (maybe) shared across all of your devices via iCloud. They probably will contain different items. The short story is that iCloud Keychain is not one of Apple's finest products. Your question clearly shows that it is confusing. I can verify that it may silently fail when you really need it. It is a great idea in concept, but not in execution.

You've got me curious as a relatively new Apple user (started with iOS6 and Lion) so with little in respect to legacy systems. I opened my key chain and found the following:

Login KC: A KC which appears to be mostly if not completely unique to my username on my iMac and Time Capsule.

iCloud KC: Everything unique to my Apple ID and all iCloud based entities ranging from websites accessed from all of my iDevices up to and including my Time Capsule authentication via Airport Utility.

System KC: a few root certs and authentication currently in use (network connections and websites where I stay logged in)?

System Roots KC: everything and anything which has authenticated me in the past or will authenticate me or my system by default in the future based on past history?

iOS and OS X are consumer-level devices. At a minimum, people should have a solid foundation in public key cryptography before using them. 👿

If the login keychain and the iCloud Keychain are both passwords to the same site, is it safe to delete the older login KC password?

Priscilla Greene wrote:

If the login keychain and the iCloud Keychain are both passwords to the same site, is it safe to delete the older login KC password?

If you do, and you decide to log out of iCloud for some reason, or it is not available, then you won't have that password available.

That makes perfect sense, thank you. The login KC is often much older than the iCloud KC so I thought it was a legacy remnant, but I see your point.