Best password manager for Macbook Air

Is it ok to use keychain on High sierra ?

Yes. Of course.

If you have other Macs or iOS devices, using iCloud Keychain will enable password synchronization among all of them.

I have set each password entry to "ask before using" and now I'm manually and painfully setting all to ask admin PW before using specific PW entries

That strikes me as a rather inconvenient and purposeless extra step.

PS : my keychain is NOT on iCloud. How to ensure that it does NOT get there accidentally

It can't get there accidentally. You have to select Keychain in iCloud Preferences.

See some articles macOS Sierra: Manage passwords using keychains

macOS Sierra: About the master password

Autofill credit cards, contacts, and passwords - Apple Support

If you have an admin account and in safari preferences > Autofill > check all the boxes as shown , so that they will be saved in user librarymacOS Sierra: Library folder

Keychain folder .

I have found Keychain to be too limited so I use 1Password.

I would have to say that 1Password by AgileBits should be your best bet. I have been using it for 5-7 years on many Apple products.

>I hope 1Password or Lastpass are virus free

Yes. Both 1password.com and LastPass.com are clean programs and clean websites.

And many of the forum long time contributors do NOT recommend Mac anti-virus packages, as the spend most of your Macs time looking for Windows malware, and do not help with annoying Mac specific things. In addition they often us unsupported kernel level interfaces the cause kernel panics after an operating system upgrade.

Keychain is basic functionality, but as has been mentioned it is limited. Especially on an iPhone or iPad, where you cannot really edit it.

Can't edit what? The passwords or the functionality?

I have never needed to edit a password as it saves the new one I enter, but it is possible: Settings > Accounts & Passwords.

At least on the Mac you can use Keychain Access to add things like the answers to security questions, on the Mac you can store secure notes, and store images, such as a picture of your drivers license, or passport, etc... But getting that information back out on your phone when you might need them is not possible.

You can enter all of that into a Secure Note which is completely accessible on your iPhone or iPad.

Thank you Barney-15E

I understand now.

I will stick with my opinion that password managers such as 1Password and LastPass allow you to keep everything about an account in one place. The web site username & password, the web site URL, the answers to the security questions, and any other ancillary information you wish to keep related that account in 1 place that is replicated to all your devices, and easily accessible in one lookup.

I personally prefer 1Password, and have been using it from years.

However, there are a lot of people that like LastPass.com

Both of these password managers work on multiple different platforms, including both Macs and phones where you can keep your passwords in sync. Also in both cases the passwords are encrypted on the device and only an encrypted file is transferred between systems, so if anyone gets ahold of the encrypted file, they will not be able to get to your passwords.

Keychain is basic functionality, but as has been mentioned it is limited. Especially on an iPhone or iPad, where you cannot really edit it. At least on the Mac you can use Keychain Access to add things like the answers to security questions, on the Mac you can store secure notes, and store images, such as a picture of your drivers license, or passport, etc... But getting that information back out on your phone when you might need them is not possible.

However, 1Password and LastPass allow you to also store all that ancillary information in the encrypted file, _AND_ allow you to access it on any device.

It is this ability to store "EVERYTHING" about an account, and access that information on any device that makes 1Password so useful to me, and Keychain not something I want to store my passwords in.

Can't edit what? The passwords or the functionality?

I have never needed to edit a password as it saves the new one I enter, but it is possible: Settings > Accounts & Passwords.

I was talking about ancillary information, such as the answers to your questions that web sites make you enter.

You can enter all of that into a Secure Note which is completely accessible on your iPhone or iPad.

I guess I have been using 1Password for so long, I did not bother to find how you do that on an iPhone.

Can you give a pointer, so this thread has an easy reference?

Not sure what you mean by a pointer, short of a link which I don’t know.

I just swipe left and click the lock.

If it is locked, there is a link to unlock.

In macOS, there is a lock button and unlock is the same

Under what app do you swipe left?

Are you talking about the Notes app? If you encrypt a note, does that end up in Keychain and accessible via Keychain on the Mac? Or is that just a encrypted note in the Mac Notes app?

Maybe a screen shot?

I use Keychain and have never needed any other password manager.

Apps are supposed to read Keychain information for those apps automatically. That's what makes it useful. I don't know which security flaw you're referring to.