Problem with "login" keychain

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Level 1

5 points

Problem with "login" keychain

I am running 10.11.5 on a 3 year old iMac. After upgrading to El Capitan a few months ago, I started having problems when trying to login into my Admin account. I kept getting asked for the "login" keychain password. No matter what password I entered, it didn't work. There were updates over the weekend, and now I am having similar problems with my regular user account. These are the messages: "Messages Agent wants to use the "login" keychain." "accountsd wants to use the login keychain," "com.apple.iCloudHelper.xpc wants to use the login keychain" and "AppleIDAuthAgent wants to use the login keychain."

In addition, the Mail app no longer has my password to get my email. That's odd.

I have not chained the login password recently. So what can I do to make these messages go away? Thanks.

Posted on Jun 6, 2016 9:07 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Jun 6, 2016 10:54 AM in response to ChEMom

Please back up all data before proceeding.

Launch the Keychain Access application in any one 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. If you have changed the keychain password, it will never unlock automatically unless you change its password back to the login password.

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.

If you use iCloud Keychain, open the iCloud pane in System Preferences and uncheck the Keychain box. You'll be prompted to delete the local iCloud keychain. Confirm. Then re-check the box. Follow one of the procedures described in this support article to set up iCloud Keychain on an additional device.

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Answer 2

dominic23

Level 10

83,904 points

Jun 6, 2016 10:55 AM in response to ChEMom

You may have to reset your keychain.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201609

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Answer 3

ChEMom Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 7, 2016 6:48 AM in response to Linc Davis

I tried your suggestion, but every time I click on the lock to unlock my login keychain, I get the beach ball. I end up having to force quit. And I scrolled through the list and don't see a "login" entry. I have login entries for various websites, but not just a "login" by itself. Any other suggestions? Thanks for your help.

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Answer 4

ChEMom Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 7, 2016 7:27 AM in response to ChEMom

I just did a reset to factory default, and so far everything is good. I still haven't tried to login into my Admin account though. That was a slightly different problem, because it would let me login (it would accept my password), but immediately after that I got hit with about 10 messages requesting passwords for different keychains, and it would not load my desktop, so I have no way to get to the Keychain Access app.

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Jun 7, 2016 10:28 AM in response to ChEMom

I'm not sure I understand either of your last two comments. Where do you stand now?

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