Keychain Access - Local Items Doesn't Lock

System keychain is the main keychain , you can add a password to keychain Keychain for Mac: Add a password to a keychain

And about login keychain Keychain for Mac: login keychain

If you try to lock it , the system keychain will be get corrupted and various keychain pop - ups will start appearing as software is designed in this manner .

See this article also macOS Sierra: Manage passwords using keychains

If you lock the local items keychain then every time your email client checks for Mail you will have to unlock it.

I suggest using Apple's iCloud keychain for added security.

Frequently asked questions about iCloud Keychain - Apple Support

iCloud Keychain: safe and secure

Hi tygb,

the locking/unlocking described in OS X El Capitan: Lock or unlock your keychain only applies to the "Login" keychain (in MacOs Sierra 10.12.5). "Local Items" will not lock.

I realise that my post above was not correct. The "Local Items" keychain is also a personal keychain. The content differs between users. The "System" keychain may indeed be the common keychain for all users. A restart or logout may be needed before new certificates are loaded and available across users.

I really miss some guidance about the nature of the default set of keychains and the difference between "Login" and "Local Items" apart from the latter being unlockable.

Personally I don't store my (important) passwords in Keychain Access or in other password managers. But the certificate function built into Keychain Access is naturally crucial. Therefore the iCloud Keychain, suggested by diane above, is not really useful to me.

Hello !

A certificate is an attachment to an electronic document that allows the safe transfer of information over the Internet. Certificates are used by web browsers, mail, and texting apps.

When you communicate with a secure site, the information exchanged with the site is encrypted. This protects your login information, credit card numbers, addresses, and other secure data.

In OS X, certificates are part of your digital identity and are stored in your keychain. Keychain Access lets you manage your certificates and keychains.

An article Keychain for Mac: Add certificates to a keychain

If you open user library macOS Sierra: Library folder

Find a folder keychains and select it , inside there is a first alfa numeric folder inside this folder all passwords are saved , inside the folder login.keychain -db > username password is saved , metadata.keychain -db > supportive files and data is saved .

If you open safari preferences , select autofill and uncheck the box of users names and password , the passwords will not be saved in keychain , so the Mac user must always check this box .

If you set up iCloud Keychain your local item will not disappear .

You can read these articles , both local keychain items and iCloud keychain have different usage .

macOS Sierra: Set up iCloud Keychain

Frequently asked questions about iCloud Keychain - Apple Support

Hello Mr.Claude,

my Local Items keychain is also unlocked, and clicking the top left padlock does not change anything.

The help pages on Keychain Access are not too good. I have a certificate I want to make "public" for all users on my Mac, and I have been trying to find out what the different keychains are for, i.e. the "Login", "Local items", "System" and "System Roots". Here are my guesses. Please correct me if I am wrong:

Login - this the current users private keychain

Local Items - this is a shared keychain for all users on the computer. All users can access items in this one. No need to lock it. It unlocks when you log in, just as your private "Login" keychain.

System - this is probably MacOS' private keychain. The users won't have access unless they unlock it with the admin password? I tried to unlock it and put my certificate in here, but it did not become available for the other users.

System Roots - this is also reserved for the system. It (seems to) only contain root certificates.

Kind regards

Ingmar

Hi tygb,

thanks for trying to illuminate the various keychains. "System" is indeed the main keychain. The content is shared among the users on the machine. Both my regular user and admin user have the same content. "System" contains certificates, WiFi passwords and other shared things.

I got this hint from Keychain Access when adding a new certificate just now:

'The "System Roots" keychain cannot be modified. To change whether a root certificate is trusted, open it in Keychain Access and modify its Trust settings. New root certificates should be added to the login keychain for the current user, or to the System keychain if they are to be shared by all users of this machine.'

Well put.

Ingmar

Yes, I know the certificate concept. This thread was started because the properties of the "Local Items" keychain seem to be unusual. So far I have not found any explanation of why it exists and what it should contain. Is there a "Remote Items" counterpart somewhere? I.e. the iCloud Keychain? If you activate iCloud Keychain, will the Local Items keychain disappear or will it sync across your devices so that a copy of "Local Items" will be found on all devices?

When you enable iCloud Keychain, all the items in the local items keychain are moved to the iCloud keychain. This will sync to all devices that have iCloud Keychain enabled.

If you turn off iCloud Keychain it will make a local items keychain and move everything off the iCloud keychain to the local keychain.

See this article OS X El Capitan: Lock or unlock your keychain