Restore keychain access after error changing login password

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Level 1

8 points

Restore keychain access after error changing login password

Hi,

I decided to change my user password for my MacBook pro (macOS Sierra) using the standard user interface from System Preferences. At the same time, I ticked the box headed 'Allow user to reset password sing Apple ID'.

When I changed the password, the first thing that happened was that the iCloud application opened, with a login dialog, which was immediately obscured by another dialog which was disabled. I'm not sure what that dialog was - possibly my keychain login, or something requiring a password to make administrative changes, but I couldn't type into it or move it, so had to close it. When I then typed my Apple password into the iCloud dialog, it just hung so that eventually I was forced to do a Force Quit to close that application.

To cut a long story short, when I then restarted my macbook, it neither accepted my old, nor my new password (although I did notice that the password hint had changed). Fortunately, I was able to reset my password using my Apple ID, but having done so, I cannot access my old keychain, which is a complete pain.

Has anyone got any idea what as gone wrong? Why something as fundamental as changing a password has failed and what, if anything, I can do to restore access to my old keychain? I've tried my old and new passwords, as well as my iCloud password, but none of them works.

Many thanks.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Nov 14, 2018 4:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

terryegham Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 14, 2018 8:58 AM in response to Eric Root

To be honest, I haven't dared! However, I think I may have resolved my problem (although have yet to be absolutely certain). I use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup my laptop, and use the 'Safety Net' feature to keep old copies of files.

In case anyone else has this problem, this is what I did:

I managed to find the copy of login.keychain-db from before I made the change and copied it locally. Then I renamed the login.keychain-db in ~/Library/Keychains and replaced it with the copy of login.keychain-db from my backup.

Then, I opened the Keychain access app and unlocked the login keychain using my old password, which still seemed to work. I then changed the password on that keychain using the Edit menu so that it matched my new user password.

When I then logged out of the mac and back in again, I had no error messages or login prompts, so I am optimistic that it has now opened the old keychain and I have everything accessible again.

Does that sound like a reasonable thing to have done? I'm not entirely sure whether it worked successfully, but when I look at it in Keychain access, it seems to have all my old passwords etc. in it. There were a couple of other files in the backup: metadata.keychain-db and a file with a long GUID for a name. I didn't restore either of those - should I have done so?

Many thanks for your help.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Nov 14, 2018 8:35 AM in response to terryegham

Since you were having problems with System Preferences when you made the change, have you tried going back to back to System Preferences/Users & Groups and resetting your admin password again?

Keychain Issues - Resolve see post by Kappy

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Nov 14, 2018 9:37 AM in response to terryegham

You are welcome. What you did sounds very reasonable. If everything is working as is, I wouldn't restore the other 2 files. You can always do that later if necessary.

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