Keychain Password Help For Unlocking My USB FlashDrive

[RazorBackXX]

ok fellas, I need y'all.

I did a clean install of macOS Sonoma & didn't realize I had encrypted The USB. when I plug it in it ask for a password I don't remember it but I remember saving it to keychain. but its not In my iCloud Keychain. I think it was saved to the local keychain which is gone now.

I used Time Machine & brought back (some of the keys) for example right now on my computer I have login.keychain & metadata keychain. but on the keys that I pulled from the Time Machine are called. System.keychain & apsd.keychain. some of the files are the same like system-keychain-2.db-wal.

I forgot my password to the usb but before the factory reset I saved it to the keychain but it only saved locally. I pulled what I could from the Time Machine &

all I need help with is how do I open the keychain from Ventura without merging or corrupting my current one Sonoma. I just need to see what I typed in as the password. but I only have system & apsd keychain for some. reason it didn't have the login & the metadata that was on Ventura btw. I have the Ventura keychain in a folder & honestly am way too afraid to double click it.

if anyone can guide me in baby steps how to do this It would mean a lot. I just need to see what it was called without merging the keychains.

also why does Sonoma have login.keychain & metadata.keychain but not system.keychain & apsd.keychain?

thanks guys I know I should have wrote down the password & I thought I did but ive looked for days & can't find it.

ps. I copied the Sonoma keychains into a folder to help better see the difference. if it helps

 

[Brian33]

but on the keys that I pulled from the Time Machine are called. System.keychain & apsd.keychain.

also why does Sonoma have login.keychain & metadata.keychain but not system.keychain & apsd.keychain?

I think you got the wrong keychains from your TM backup. At least on my Monterey machine, 'System.keychain' and 'apsd.keychain' normally are located in the /Library/Keychains directory (NOTE that it starts with a '/'). Those are NOT where your password would have been stored.

I think your password would have been saved in 'login.keychain-db' which is located in your USER library directory, so make sure you to to /Users/yourname/Library/Keychains and look there in Time Machine. (I don't know what metadata.keychain-db is for, but it's there too.)

I don't have much experience with Keychain Access.app, but it doesn't have a File->Open menu item. Maybe it would work to rename the backup 'login.keychain-db' to old.keychain-db and put it in your user's Keychain directory (that is, /Users/yourname/Library/Keychains), and open Keychain Access.app and see if it's listed there. Maybe it would be safer to create a new, temporary keychain and import from the backup one.

Hopefully someone else can give some advice on how to open the backup keychain without affecting your existing ones....