How to stop those infernal Keychain password requests?

Question

How to stop those infernal Keychain password requests?

I used to never get asked for my Keychain password.
At some point, I suddenly started to get asked for my Keychain password after every restart by Apple Mail and by iChat.

I looked all over Keychain prefs and couldn't find anything that would automatically take care of this for me.

I started from scratch with a completely new Keychain, and I still keep getting asked for the password in those two apps.

How do I get things back to the way they used to be?

Thanks!

PowerBook Pismo 500 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Mar 20, 2007 8:45 AM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Mar 20, 2007 4:02 PM in response to George Machen

Start with http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060727075656739 and hopefully something therein will fix the problem.

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Answer 2

Mar 20, 2007 4:32 PM in response to baltwo

Well, MacFixit did have one paragraph, quoted below, but it is a fix for apps asking for their passwords. My two apps, Mail and iChat, ask for my Keychain password on launch after each restart. So my problem remains.

Maybe it would be best if someone who actually has experienced my problem and solved it would relate what they did.

--

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060727075656739

Persistently asked for stored passwords
If you are persistently asked for passwords in various applications that you have specified should be remembered in a keychain, your "login" keychain may not be active for one reason or another.

Navigate to ~/Library/Keychains/ (this is the Library folder inside your user home folder). Find the file named "login.keychain" and double-click it.

Failing that, select the "login" keychain within the Keychain Access application and make sure it is the default keychain by going to the "File" menu and selecting "Make 'Login' Default"

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Mar 20, 2007 5:07 PM in response to George Machen

AFAICT, the username/password combos in Mail and iChat are stored in the keychain, just like the ones associated with Safari.

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2007 5:16 PM in response to baltwo

AFAICT, the username/password combos in Mail and iChat are
stored in the keychain, just like the ones associated with
Safari.

Well, yeah, of course they are. And Keychain duly automatically enters them. But my problem isn't that the app passwords aren't being entered, but rather that after each restart these two apps are asking for my Keychain password (before Keychain then in turn properly auto-enters the app password).

PowerBook Pismo 500 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Mar 20, 2007 9:10 PM in response to George Machen

Then, I'm out of ideas. Do a search in these forums for keychain and keychain AND access and see what pops up.

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Answer 6

Mar 21, 2007 6:25 AM in response to baltwo

Allright, I solved the immediate problem. But the solution opened an even larger can of worms.

Making my login keychain the default stopped my two apps asking for my Keychain password after every reboot.

But now all the passwords in my other formerly default keychain won't get automatically entered without it first annoyingly asking for my Keychain password. Yes, that other keychain is unlocked, so why aren't its passwords automatically used?

It's beginning to look like that only passwords within the default keychain will leave me alone, so I tried to move all my entries from my other keychain to my login keychain. But it asks me to enter my Keychain password for each and every one of my umpteen entries, despite clicking "Always allow." This is getting to be too much!

Import & Export menu items are grayed-out & unavailable no matter what I do.

The Keychain Help is abysmally useless. I don't see Import or Export mentioned anywhere! Sheesh!

I'm really frustrated with the user-hostility & unintelligibility of keychain. Why does this sh it have to be so hard?!

PowerBook Pismo 500 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 7

Mar 21, 2007 11:59 AM in response to George Machen

I think I am having a similar problem to yours. I am running 10.4.9 with multiple users and on this one machine (iMac) that the family shares there is the continual keychain password question, i.e when opening mail (and other apps). I have tried opening up keychain access (applications>utilities>keychain acess) and there is a verify / repair function there under Keychain first aid... This gives me an error and tells me that the problem cannot be fixed... the message is User differs on ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist, should be 501, owner is 0
Owner not corrected on ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist, reason: No such file or directory. You might try this if you have not already.

I have tried reinstalling the system software via firewire (target boot) from my iBook... no change... although at first it seemed to be ok... You might also try this step.
I am close to just doing a complete reinstall and rebuilding all of the passwords by synching them with my iBook 😟 I'd rather not.

Dan

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Answer 8

Mar 21, 2007 2:04 PM in response to Dan Erlandson

Already had run Keychain First Aid. Passed with flying colors.

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Answer 9

Mar 21, 2007 5:40 PM in response to George Machen

Do you think a clean install of the system folder might help? I'm not sure if the passwords & associated annoyances are located in the system folder, but it might be worth a try.

Dan

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Answer 10

Mar 21, 2007 5:57 PM in response to Dan Erlandson

There isn't any way to prevent Keychain from asking for your paswword after a reboot. It is normal Keychain behavior and without it anyone could log in to all your webpages after a reboot.

The only really insecure part to all this is that if your portable is stolen, anyone can login to your sites while Keychain is unlocked.

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Answer 11

Mar 22, 2007 6:23 AM in response to Gnarlodious

There isn't any way to prevent Keychain from asking
for your paswword after a reboot. It is normal
Keychain behavior and without it anyone could log in
to all your webpages after a reboot.

Balderdash! I just got through saying, stated above, that by setting my login keychain as the default, it stopped Keychain asking for its password after every reboot. This behavior is an adjustable option in the prefs. You can choose whether or not to have to enter your Keychain password after every reboot.

The question now is, why is the Default keychain apparently the only one that frees us from this interminable burden? Why not the other (unlocked) keychain sets?

The only really insecure part to all this is that if
your portable is stolen, anyone can login to your
sites while Keychain is unlocked.

Any IT security expert will tell you that no matter what you do, if someone has physical access to your computer, it ultimately is not secure. Keychain isn't an additional security risk! Besides, many of us got along just fine for nearly two decades in the classic Mac OS without this (optional) annoyance.

PowerBook Pismo 500 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 12

Mar 22, 2007 6:36 AM in response to George Machen

Incredibly, you are not the first to notice this. We have had discussions with others on this site who are equally offended that Keychain needs to be unlocked after a reboot. Somehow they don't see this as a security improvement. Go figure.

As to your second claim, I would disagree. Even if some hacker had posession of your Mac, the locked keychain is nearly impossibly to crack. They may have access to your files, but your online sites are still secure unless you keep a text file somewhere with login information.

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