Restoring iCloud Keychain

[Opunium]

I switched mobile network providers and my new simcard was giving me messages on my iPhone X. I thought that it was weird and a quickly learnt that I had to reset network settings, so I did that. Soon after I noticed that, without warning, this reset had deleted all my saved wifi passwords. Years of passwords of place I visit regularly now all gone. Of course, this is very unfortunate and annoying as well. Is there any way to restore it? Restoring my iPhone with an iCloud backup from before the reset is no use I guess, since iCloud isnt on my phone? I can find all the passwords in my Keychain app on my Mac. Is there a way I can export these to my iPhone/iCloud? Or am I screwed and do I have to live with it?

 

[techwarrior]

Without having iCloud Keychain enabled, your choices are quite limited.

You could use something like 1Password to manually create all of the WiFi's in the Mac keychain as "Wireless Routers" and refer to these when you connect to the networks. Pretty laborious, but beats asking the admin for credentials each time.

Why not use iCloud on the phone?

 

[Opunium]

Without having iCloud Keychain enabled, your choices are quite limited.

You could use something like 1Password to manually create all of the WiFi's in the Mac keychain as "Wireless Routers" and refer to these when you connect to the networks. Pretty laborious, but beats asking the admin for credentials each time.

Why not use iCloud on the phone?

I had iCloud keychain on. But then the reset deleted it's contents. I still have it on, but all the passwords are gone. Thats why I want them back (and since they are still locally stored on my MBP I wondered if I could execute some trick to put these passwords stored on my MBP back in the iCloud).

I have never used 1Password, is it easy to install on both my Mac and iPhone and then enter the passwords on my Mac (as a sort of replacement iCloud) and have them work on my iPhone?

 

[techwarrior]

Is iCloud keychain enabled on the Mac? When you re-activate keychain on iPhone, it should pull all keychain data down from the iCloud account.

1Password, or other password vault apps are sort of supplements to keychain, they install on iOS and Mac\PC, even Android, and sync passwords, and other secure data through the app vendor's website, or in some cases through iCloud, dropbox, etc. But, if you don't use it and don't have a burning need, seems overkill for your situation.

I have never had issues with iCloud re-syncing keychain to new iOS devices. Something seems wrong in your situation. I would be tempted to go into an Apple Store with a Genius appointment and take your MBP and iPhone and have them assist. Likely, they will have you log out of iCloud on both devices, then back in again to force it to sync up. That, or turn off keychain sync on Mac and iPhone, then back on again.

Or you could try AppleCare, they are typically really good at helping iron out little snags like this.

 

[chrfr]

Is iCloud keychain enabled on the Mac? When you re-activate keychain on iPhone, it should pull all keychain data down from the iCloud account.

No, it's normal behavior that when you do a network settings reset on an iOS device with iCloud Keychain enabled that all wireless networks are deleted from all devices that have iCloud Keychain enabled. Any saved networks are then deleted from the iCloud Keychain too. Signing back in to iCloud Keychain won't restore those deleted networks. The only way to get them back is to have a device that still has the networks saved but has iCloud Keychain turned off before doing the network settings reset on the iOS device. Then, signing back into iCloud Keychain with that device should sync those networks back into the keychain.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn't make that very clear at all.