What's wrong with my Macbook?

Back up all data before proceeding.

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 and start typing the name.

Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window. If your default keychain has a different name, select that.

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

There are four checkboxes in the window that opens. Check all of them. if they're not already checked. Close the window.

Select

Keychain Access ▹ Keychain First Aid

from the menu bar and repair the keychain. Quit Keychain Access.

So you opened the Utilities folder and double-clicked Keychain Access, and it wouldn't launch?

Originally, the keychain password is the same as the login password for the account. The login password can be changed in any of three ways:

1. By the user, in the Users & Groups preference pane. In this case, the keychain password is automatically changed to the new login password
2. By the administrator (if different), also in the preference pane. The keychain password is not changed.
3. By anyone who has physical access to the computer, in Recovery mode. The keychain is replaced by a new, empty one with the new password, and the old keychain is saved with the old password.

To change a keychain password, launch the Keychain Access application and select the keychain from the list on the left. If the list isn't showing, select

View ▹ Show Keychains

from the menu bar, or press the key combination command-K. Then select

Edit ▹ Change Password for Keychain...

You must know the old password in order to set a new one. Otherwise you'll have to reset the keychain.