Cannot Type in Keychain Reset Box

Question

Level 1

5 points

Cannot Type in Keychain Reset Box

I'm on a 2011 13" macbook pro running 10.10.2. I've had a problem with my keychain where it will not store WiFi passwords. I've tried Keychain First Aid, and deleting keychains and creating new ones.

Currently, when I connect to a WiFi network, it asks me to enter the password, and whether I want to remember the network.
I enter the password, and check "Remember this network".
I get a message: "A keychain cannot be found to store "[SSID]." with two options "Cancel" or "Reset To Defaults".
Clicking Cancel closes the box and keeps me connected until I disconnect or go out of range. The process repeats to this point next time I connect.
Clicking Reset to Defaults brings up the "Are you sure you want to reset your keychain? This will delete all your saved passwords, keys, and certificates. You cannot undo this operation. I click "Reset".
Now it says "Please enter your login password. This password will be used to create your new keychain. With a "Password" text entry box, and "Cancel" and "OK" buttons.
No matter what I've tried, I cannot type in the Password box. The mouse seems to interact with the dialog box, and it appears to be the focused window, but when I type, it just sends the characters to whatever other window I was last in. In this case, it types here. Even if the box appears in focus, the header at the top still currently says Chrome.

I've tried closing all other windows, I've tried using an on-screen keyboard, I've tried copying and pasting, I've tried doing it after a fresh restart. I'm out of options.

Clicking "Cancel" or "OK" both simply close the window. I am connected to the network until I disconnect or go out of range, but it still doesn't remember the password for next time.

Thanks for any help you might have!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Feb 27, 2015 7:55 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Feb 27, 2015 12:44 PM in response to BLPhoto

Long shot perhaps. See if you can reset it in the Safe Mode.

Try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear and again when you log in. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don’t do them all at once.

Safe Mode - About

Safe Mode - Yosemite

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Answer 2

BLPhoto Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 2, 2015 6:03 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, in Safe Mode I have the exact same problem. I'm open to anything else!

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Mar 2, 2015 2:00 PM in response to BLPhoto

You are welcome. Could be a corruption problem

Do a backup.

Quit the application.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/ com.apple.keychainaccess.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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Answer 4

BLPhoto Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 4, 2015 6:47 AM in response to Eric Root

I attempted that to no avail. I've actually taken it a step further, and tried creating an entirely new user account on the machine, and I'm getting the same errors.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Mar 4, 2015 1:51 PM in response to BLPhoto

Since it is a system wide problem, try re-installing the OS.

Do a backup. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Then re-install the OS.

OS X Recovery

OS X Recovery (2)

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Answer 6

Jun 8, 2016 10:41 AM in response to Eric Root

I ran into this as well, was able to fix using the following steps. Use at your own risk.

Make new keychain in Keychain Access
Copy everything from System keychain to the new keychain that you can (copy+paste)
Export anything it doesn't let you copy
For safety, copy Library/Keychains/System.keychain and /var/db/SystemKey files someplace safe
[DANGER] run this destructive command in Terminal to ERASE current System keychain and create an empty one: 'sudo /usr/sbin/systemkeychain -C -f'
Import/copy everything back to the new empty System keychain
Reboot

Now I don't get System keychain errors.

Thanks to this thread for the systemkeychain command:

Keychain Problems

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