keychain not working after El Capitan

I had this same problem - could not view passwords in my personal keychain (of which there are many) - on an imac. The problem did not manifest on my macbook pro however. This was after an update from Mavericks to El Capitan. After typing in password for the said keychain in order to view passwords for individual entries in the said keychain things would just lock up with spinning wheel. The only way out was to hard reset or, better yet enter "deny" in the dialog. As it turns out this was all due to the "magicprefs" mouse-enhancement software that I installed a while back in order to implement a middle mouse click (since I am a long-time unix/linux user).

After trashing all the "magicprefs files", everything is back to normal, and I can live with native OSX workarounds. Still, I think the middle click of a 3-button mouse is invaluable. If you've ever had it you know what I'm talking about. Hopefully a future mac OS will make it possible.

Hope this helps anyone else with this problem!

That's exactly why I use MagicPrefs as well 🙂

You don't have to completely uninstall it, though. When a keychain dialog pops up, go to the MagicPrefs icon in the menu bar and disable it. After you click on Allow or Allow All, you can enable it again.

In Keychain, sort on Microsoft. You want to delete the entry with the blue @. Log out/in then open Office apps and see if you can select allow now.

You might need to reset the keychain or completely reset the Keychain folder in the User's Library.

Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.

From the Keychain Access menu, choose Preferences.

Click General, then click Reset My Default Keychain.

Authenticate with your account login password.

Quit Keychain Access.

Restart your computer.

My keychain access is messed up horribly. No login keychain, even though I attempted to create one. When I clicked on Reset my default keychain the message I rec'd is "the specified keychain could not be found". On keychain first aid there is nowhere to enter my password. And on and on....I doubt that I would have installed this OS had my iPhone not needed to be updated so that my mail would again work on my computer. Alas it was a ruse!! Can still get mail on my current phone OS but doubt that I'll update to OS 9 until this is sorted out!

Thanks! The first option worked for me.

That's what I am facing now too. I can only click on the deny button for 5+ times to make the window go away.

Disable MagicPrefs solve the problem.

Open Keychain Access

Enter microsoft in the top filter

Double click to open the entry with the blue @.

You should see something like this, but often only the first app you activate will show up here.

Delete the entry in the Keychain with blue @

Open your apps and see if you can now select Allow.

(Note: I have seen it create a new entry in keychain and other times, no entry at al but the apps worked and were activated.)

Definitely an issue that Apple and Microsoft need to address.

I ran into this issue after updating to 10.11.1 as well. I found a fix:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/212622/keychain-wont-let-copy-passwords -after-10-11-1-update/213099#213099

Basically, there are some apps like Alfred, TextExpander, or MagicPrefs that might be stealing focus when you click "Allow" or "Always Allow". You need to figure out which app is doing this but quitting them one-by-one and checking to see if the problem goes away. Once you find the offending app, go to [System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Accessibility] and add the offending app to the list.

For me it turned out to be MagicPrefs. Worked like a charm!

I saw the problem on two other computers that had nothing but the Apple apps and Microsoft Office. I think it might be more involved than a third party app.

Nice fix for some users though.

Exactly what I found, was just about to add the solution here also! Thanks for that, this works and should be enough for people to sort out their issue. Was on the phone with apple support for a good hour to no avail. I guess they don't support 3rd party apps so...

Cheers

Thx guys - this thread helped a lot. In my case, I had to disable accessibility to Default Folder 5.x beta. I can now click on the "always allow" keychain button.

Be sure to report the DFX beta feedback.

DefaultFolderX@stclairsoft.com

I guys, i had this problem and the cause was the smoothmouse.

the ideia to solve the problem come from here:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/212622/keychain-wont-let-copy-passwords -after-10-11-1-update/213099#213099

I was able to resolve this issue by contacting Apple Support - they coached me through deleting the keychains in my OS and restarting. No more pop-ups!

I have found additional info on this problem.

These solutions were posted by HansC and rdehavenl on this discussion:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7297609

-Restart the Mac in Safe mode (keep Shift button pressed after the apple sound comes on)

-Then try and open each Office 2016 application

-When that annoying Dialog comes on, Click "Always allow" (somehow in Safe mode this button works!!)

-Restart the Mac normally and voila, Office works.

Safe-mode will work, but if you know of any applications that are running to intercept user-input, try quitting those applications to allow the requests. You may need to ForceQuit and restart the office app after stopping the other apps.

Example Apps:

MagicPrefs

Hazel

AppleRemote Desktop (Remote mode)

Bomgar (Remote Support Mode)

TeamViewer (Remote Control Mode)

Linc Davis mentions changes by Apple in 10.11.1 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7326759

First, if you're trying to enter a password remotely via a screen-sharing application such as Apple Remote Desktop or "TeamViewer," that won't work in OS X 10.11.1 or later. It was blocked as a security risk.

If you're running third-party software called "BetterTouchTool," "MagicPrefs," "Synergy," or anything else that modifies the function of an input device such as a trackpad or mouse, either remove it or refer to its developer for support.

The same thing may happen if you're using a Wacom graphics tablet.