Pecked to Death By Keychains

Every time I close the lid on my MacBook Pro, running 10.6.2, and open it again, Mail, Cal, and/or Adium will pop up the keychain unlock dialog. Even if they are minimized to the task bar. The unlock dialog squats there, modally, until I oblige it with a password.

Does anyone know how to change this behavior?

bmargulies

Posted 2009-12-15T00:35:18.147

Reputation: 1 121

Answers

First, make a backup of login.keychain:

cp ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain ~/login.keychain.bak

Then delete it:

rm ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

the reason to keep a backup is in case you want to restore your saved passwords. This will stop the prompts however.

John T

Posted 2009-12-15T00:35:18.147

Reputation: 149 037

1That has rather dramatic consequences. I think you should edit your answer to warn people about the loss of all their saved passwords, and then I'll accept it. – bmargulies – 2009-12-15T01:09:05.947

create a backup of your keychain :) – None – 2009-12-15T05:20:50.987

This is often because the keychain security level has been set too high...

Go into Keychain Access (Utilities --> Keychain Access)...

1) Keychain Access Menu --> Keychain First Aid --> Authenticate, Choose Repair Keychain --> Start

2) Edit Menu --> Keychain Settings * Update the "Lock After XX Minutes of inactivity" to whatever settings you want * Most likely, you will want to turn off "Lock when sleeping".

Benjamin Schollnick

Posted 2009-12-15T00:35:18.147

Reputation: 4 313

settings were already as you recommend here. – bmargulies – 2009-12-15T16:33:43.503

Than chances are that the keychain password is DIFFERENT than your computer's login password. You can either recreate your keychain (John T's answer), or reset the keychain password to match. – Benjamin Schollnick – 2009-12-15T20:54:00.637

At least on Mac OS X through 10.5.x, this is NOT the default behavior.

However, if you are using SSHKeychain or a third-party tool, this may lock the login keychain when the laptop goes to sleep.

Jon Lasser

Posted 2009-12-15T00:35:18.147

Reputation: 1 267

no such tools installed. Also, I do have 'require password when awake from sleep'. I don't mind the initial prompt to unlock the keychain, it's the individual app prompts that do the pecking. – bmargulies – 2009-12-15T02:07:50.650