Fixing Mac keychain issues

Tags keychain Mac

The Mac keychain is used for secure password storage - when you opt to save your Safari passwords, email password, or sjuwireless password, that data is saved to the keychain.  Here's an in-depth article about how all of this works.  Typically, the password to unlock the keychain is the same as your login password, but when you change your SJU password in The Nest, that makes the keychain out of sync with your login password.

For faculty and staff Macs, we've rolled out an application called Jamf Connect (and NoMAD before that) that should help with this.  In some cases, though, you'll need to manually repair the keychain.

Resetting the keychain

  1. When logging in, you'll see a dialog box that offers two options: Create New Keychain and Update Keychain Password.
    1. If you do not remember your previous SJU password, select Create New Keychain.
    2. If you remember your previous SJU password, select Update Keychain Password.

Resetting the keychain (manually)

  1. In the Finder, click the Go menu.  Select "Go To Folder...".
  2. Type (or paste) ~/Library/Keychains/ and click 'Go'.
  3. Move the contents of the Keychains folder to the trash.
  4. Restart the computer immediately.