I am looking for an explanation of the difference between my local keychain and iCloud keychain. And since iCloud is secured with a complex pass phrase, isn't it inherently safer than my local keychain?
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)
Your local keychain is as secure as your keychain password. By default, the keychain password is the same as your login password. You can change it, but you'll have to unlock it separately when you log in.
Your local keychain is stored on your Mac and is only available to you while logged into your account on your Mac.
The iCloud keychain is stored on Apple's servers and is shared among all of your devices.
How do I change my local keychain PW to something different from the login PW? And how do I unlock it? Will the local keychain lock itself when the machine goes to sleep or goes to screen saver?
Do the two keychains contain the same login credentials? Why not delete the local keychain and use just the iCloud one?
You can do that in Keychain Access.
Select the login keychain, then both options are in the Edit menu, one to change password and one for Settings.
You can add the keychain to the menu bar which gives you options to unlock and lock from the menu bar.
Keychain versus iCloud Keychain
