Get rid of Keychain popup

[Ambrosia7177]

I have an external drive that I use for cloning, and when I booted up into it, I was gettings ome strange popup form asking for a Keychain password or something like that. (I didn't bother to write it down.)

I have never used the keychain, because my fear is that it shares the same weakness as password managers.

Anyways...

The only way I can think that the Keychain was set up, was when I was having all of the issues with my two Retina last year (or the year before?) and I broke down and finally sent them back to Apple for a logic board swap out. If the tech did something my with Keychain, and then I cloned that drive, it might have carried over to my clone.

At any rate, if I just format this suspect drive, will that eliminate any strange mssages about the Keychain, or do I have a bigger issue?

Thanks.

 

[chrfr]

I have an external drive that I use for cloning, and when I booted up into it, I was gettings ome strange popup form asking for a Keychain password or something like that. (I didn't bother to write it down.)

Report back when you know the error. Is the disk encrypted?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I have never used the keychain, because my fear is that it shares the same weakness as password managers."

Seems to me that some things get stored into the keychain whether you consciously "use it", or not.

Open Keychain Access and see if there's anything inside.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Report back when you know the error. Is the disk encrypted?

I have an Admin user and a Regular user.

When I log in as the regular user on this clones drive, I get a pop-up stating...

The System was unable to unlock your login keychain.

If you remember your old password you can update the keychain password. If youd o not remember your old password, you can create a new login keychain or choose to leave the login keychain using a different password.

- Would you like to update the password, create a new keychain, or continue to login?''Continue to Log In
- Create new Keychain
- Update Keychain Password

Why is this coming up?

I don't want to do any of those choices - I didn't ever authorize the keychain to come to life.

Back to my original question...

If I format this drive will this issue go away, or is the keychain at a level below the OS?

If I can simple format the drive and use CCC to create a newer clone, that's all I want/need.

BTW, yes, I am running FileVault 2.
[doublepost=1558718739][/doublepost]P.S. I hit escape to try and get out of that pop-up message, and my Desktop appeared and then another pop-up appeared stating:

networkserviceproxy wants to use the "login" keychain.

- Cancel
- OK

If I hit "Cancel" the pop-up simply reappears.

 

[chrfr]

I have an Admin user and a Regular user.

When I log in as the regular user on this clones drive, I get a pop-up stating...

You need to click "Create new keychain." (The other options have been removed in later versions of macOS.) Whether or not you want to use a keychain, the operating system will use a keychain for a number of things.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

macOS cannot operate without Keychain Access. It is not only for external passwords like website logins, but for the internal functioning of the OS - permissions to access specific OS functions, for example. It's part of how/why macOS/Unix are secure.

You're most likely getting those popups because the login password for your Mac was changed. Normally, the login password and the password to unlock Keychain Access are the same. If they get out of sync (new login password, but Keychain Access password is unchanged), you will start being asked to log in to every internal service that requires a password for use.

This is the support article you need: https://support.apple.com/HT201609
[doublepost=1558719553][/doublepost]Oh, P.S. - if you don't want to store website passwords, go right ahead. You're asked whether you want to store those passwords in the keychain. Just say no, and keep entering them manually.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

macOS cannot operate without Keychain Access. It is not only for external passwords like website logins, but for the internal functioning of the OS - permissions to access specific OS functions, for example. It's part of how/why macOS/Unix are secure.

You're most likely getting those popups because the login password for your Mac was changed. Normally, the login password and the password to unlock Keychain Access are the same. If they get out of sync (new login password, but Keychain Access password is unchanged), you will start being asked to log in to every internal service that requires a password for use.

This is the support article you need: https://support.apple.com/HT201609
[doublepost=1558719553][/doublepost]Oh, P.S. - if you don't want to store website passwords, go right ahead. You're asked whether you want to store those passwords in the keychain. Just say no, and keep entering them manually.

That is probably what happened, and thanks for the wisdom.

But back to my larger question...

If I format this external drive, and run CCC over it, will that fix all of these issues?

In other words, will formatting this external HDD erase anything related to the macOS keychain along with everything else, or does the macOS keychain reside at some deeper hidden level?

(This is merely a backup disk, so erasing it is no big deal. And my MacBook Pro works fine - the issue is on this external drive. I just want a clean external HDD and to stop getting these keychain error popups when I boot upt o this external drive.)

 

[HDFan]

If I format this external drive, and run CCC over it, will that fix all of these issues?

CCC'ing your boot drive to an external drive will copy everything, including any keychain files. As stated above just recreate the keychain but don't put anything in it.

I have never used the keychain, because my fear is that it shares the same weakness as password managers.

And that weakness is? Unless you only need a handful of passwords each unique for a site, remembering 20 digit passwords with upper/lower case, numbers and symbols is beyond my memory for 972 logins. That doesn't include usernames/login names. For really sensitive financial sites I use the password generator for usernames with the same specs.

 

[chrfr]

If I format this external drive, and run CCC over it, will that fix all of these issues?

Edit: if you clone over a working OS to this external drive, yes, the problem will go away, but remember that working system is already using a functional keychain whether or not you want it to. You can get the same result, much more quickly, by just clicking "Create New Keychain" on the existing external drive.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

That is probably what happened, and thanks for the wisdom.

But back to my larger question...

If I format this external drive, and run CCC over it, will that fix all of these issues?

In other words, will formatting this external HDD erase anything related to the macOS keychain along with everything else, or does the macOS keychain reside at some deeper hidden level?

(This is merely a backup disk, so erasing it is no big deal. And my MacBook Pro works fine - the issue is on this external drive. I just want a clean external HDD and to stop getting these keychain error popups when I boot upt o this external drive.)

First off, yes, your Mac System keychain (and System Roots) "resides at some deeper hidden level." For our discussion, we're only talking about the user login keychains - the keychains that are unique to each individual user account. The user login keychains are stored within the respective User folders.

The login passwords for your user accounts are also stored at the system level. After you log into a user account, that password is handed-off to Keychain Access. If the passwords match, no pop-ups. If the passwords don't match, then you're asked for the password(s) for login and/or Local Items keychains.

For greater security, by choice, some people use a different password for Keychain Access than they use for their user login. That would be little different than if they were using a separate password keeper, like 1Password - it prevents those who know your user login from viewing the other stored passwords. However, as Keychain Access is integral to the operation of the Mac, it demands to be unlocked immediately upon logging into a user.

Do you have keychain issues logging into the Standard user on the internal drive? If not, then the issue is likely with the clone you’re trying to boot from the external drive - the login keychain stored inside the hidden Library folder of the cloned Standard user account (~/Library/Keychains) has an old password.

Erasing the old clone and making a new clone will duplicate the current keychain on the internal drive. If you don’t need the contents of the old clone, then this fixes the issue. If you need the old clone, fix the keychain.

As noted, it’s far faster to fix the keychain than to make a clone, but if you need a new clone anyway, then erase.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

First off, yes, your Mac System keychain (and System Roots) "resides at some deeper hidden level." For our discussion, we're only talking about the user login keychains - the keychains that are unique to each individual user account. The user login keychains are stored within the respective User folders.

The login passwords for your user accounts are also stored at the system level. After you log into a user account, that password is handed-off to Keychain Access. If the passwords match, no pop-ups. If the passwords don't match, then you're asked for the password(s) for login and/or Local Items keychains.

For greater security, by choice, some people use a different password for Keychain Access than they use for their user login. That would be little different than if they were using a separate password keeper, like 1Password - it prevents those who know your user login from viewing the other stored passwords. However, as Keychain Access is integral to the operation of the Mac, it demands to be unlocked immediately upon logging into a user.

Interesting. I'll have to start another thread on this topic some day...

Do you have keychain issues logging into the Standard user on the internal drive? If not, then the issue is likely with the clone you’re trying to boot from the external drive - the login keychain stored inside the hidden Library folder of the cloned Standard user account (~/Library/Keychains) has an old password.

Nope. Internal drive works fine, and I have never used the User keychain.

Erasing the old clone and making a new clone will duplicate the current keychain on the internal drive. If you don’t need the contents of the old clone, then this fixes the issue. If you need the old clone, fix the keychain.

As noted, it’s far faster to fix the keychain than to make a clone, but if you need a new clone anyway, then erase.

I'll just wipe the drive and start over. Besides, a clone is only good if it is up-to-date!

Thanks.