Apple Keychain Access: What does it store?

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Level 1

0 points

Apple Keychain Access: What does it store?

Greetings,

I'm new to Mac, and recently noticed the Keychain Access password manager. Apparently it has to save all passwords/credit cards/etc. but I already have Dashlane for that, and I don't trust iCloud to sync all my personal data.

But... what exactly does it store? I decided to delete everything from there and got logged out of my "Internet Accounts", meaning that it's not only for merely storing logins but also for keeping the user logged in to numerous apps (I guess). It's definitely not a simple password safe.

Also, how do I disable it? Again, iCloud is not a service I trust for storing all my passwords (I keep it all offline with Dashlane) and I don't want to store anything in Keychain locally either, given that Dashlane does the job perfectly fine.

Some help from Apple pros would be extremely appreciated 🙂

Thank you,

-Arty

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 27, 2015 10:06 AM

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Answer 1

slowblow

Level 1

20 points

Jul 27, 2015 11:33 AM in response to Artyyy

Hi there,

The keychain is a local tool.( offline, in your mac)

It stores user and password of // applications (E.g: Skype = local application) // websites (e.g : login in at skype.com) // servers services ( mail-contact-calendar-ftp-smb-etc.) // wi-fi connections to networks you've already connected to // passwords protected files, etc. >>> basically everything that asks for a user and / or password; so you do not have to enter your credentials over and over again. It is stored locally (in your user session, on your mac >> offline) and it is there to help you.

If you want to make it available to all Apple your devices, you have to enable iCloud keychain so these credentials will be synced on all your devices.(Macs / iPhone,iPad,etc.) : it will not be " online " but "pushed" to those devices.

If you do not want that, leave the Keychain unchecked in the iCloud tab in System Preferences.

Every user in a Mac has got one, yours will therefore be different from another user on the same mac since you do not have the same credentials for mail, skype, etc.

If you delete it from your mac (from your user account), everything that is stored within it will be gone : you will have to enter again your password for every service or file that needs a credential to use/ login that service /file.

Voila

Cheers-

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,583 points

Jul 27, 2015 11:43 AM in response to Artyyy

It also store website certificates. I would recommend you just leave it alone.

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Answer 3

Artyyy Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2015 5:47 PM in response to slowblow

Thanks! I guess I learned it the hard way 😝 But how do you prevent it from storing website passwords, i.e. totally disable the Safari/Chrome pop-ups asking to save the passwords and the automatic saving of passwords/usernames for online logins?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,583 points

Jul 28, 2015 6:22 PM in response to Artyyy

You can't stop it from asking based on my experience. It is being 'helpful'.

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Answer 5

Artyyy Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2015 7:05 PM in response to Eric Root

Well that's sad. At least there should be an option to disable it across the OS.

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