Unable to transfer Keychain data

Question

Level 1

10 points

Unable to transfer Keychain data

I'm trying to copy keychain info from one Mac to another, from an old Mac Pro running El Cap, to a new Mac Pro running Sierra.

In the ~/Library/Keychains folder there is no Login.keychain, just three items: aspd.keychain, System.keychain and System.keychain-orig, but if I try to import any of these to Keychain Access on the new machine, they are all greyed out.

Exporting individual items from the old machine's Keychain Access doesn't seem to work either - I can select items, but the Export command is always greyed out - in both cases Keychain Access is unlocked.

Btw, I did import my user data using Migration Assistant, but none of the Keychain items appear to have been copied.

How can i transfer my Keychain data?

Posted on Jan 26, 2017 7:50 AM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Jan 26, 2017 12:44 PM in response to TheLoneRoger

. To manually move your keychains to another Mac, you can copy your keychain file to the other computer and import it with Keychain Access. To copy only some keychains and not all, see Import and export keychain items.

You can follow this article : Keychain Access: Copy keychains to another Mac

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Answer 2

Dec 3, 2017 11:22 AM in response to TheLoneRoger

Were you able to successfully copy keychains from your old Mac to the other?

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Answer 3

Jan 26, 2017 12:44 PM in response to TheLoneRoger

If you are not seeing a Login keychain and you are seeing a System keychain then almost certainly you are looking in the wrong folder, i.e. you are looking in

/Library/Keychains

when you should be looking in

~/Library/Keychains

Yes I note your post says ~/Library/Keychains but the result suggests you forgot to type ~ at the beginning.

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Answer 4

TheLoneRoger Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 26, 2017 12:44 PM in response to John Lockwood

Thanks, I had actually looked for my Home Library, but been unable to see it because it was hidden.

Unfortunately this particular Mac will not shut down or re-boot without being forced (one reason why I'm moving on), so revealing hidden folders was a bit problematic.

I did get there in the end, though not in time to try transferring the Keychain files, but hopefully when i do that tomorrow, it should work.

Fwiw, I think Apple's policy with recent OS updates of protecting us from ourselves by hiding things, is counter-productive and unnecessary.

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