Keychain "reset to defaults"

Hi,
I turned on my computer after Thanksgiving break and I have a brand new problem that I haven't seen before. All my keychains are gone... when I get on Fetch, for example, and put in the FTP password and click add to keychain, I get a message that I have to reset them to the default environment, and then I need to enter my system password.... then I get an error that the action can't be completed, and my password isn't saved.
Also, logging onto SMB servers.... is all different. I'm getting a completely different prompt for my password than I used to. I have no idea what happened.
I know that my computer was on and off a couple times while I was gone - it's on a schedule to turn on and off by itself.... but other than that, nothing was done.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jon

Welcome to Mac-Forums, jonkovach.

Launch Keychain Access.app (in the Utilitities folder) and select Keychain First Aid under Keychain Access from the menubar (or type Command + Option + A).

See if that doesn't fix it. Report back.

Good luck!

I did that (never knew that existed!!) and got errors.
No idea what is going on here...



Verification started
Checking keychain configuration for Jon Kovach (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/G5One
Checked login keychain
~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain does not appear to be a valid keychain file
Checked default keychain
Checked keychain search list
Verification completed

Repair started
Checking keychain configuration for Jon Kovach (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/G5One
Checked login keychain
~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain does not appear to be a valid keychain file
Renamed /Users/G5One/Library/Keychains/login.keychain to /Users/G5One/Library/Keychains/login_renamed.keychain
Created login keychain
Unable to get info for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain, reason: No such file or directory
Checked default keychain
Checked keychain search list
Warning: some problems were not fixed
Repair failed

Looks like there is a lot of corruption in your system.

Launch Disk Utility, select your hard drive icon in the left sidebar and repair disk permissions.

Download MainMenu (correct spelling), install it, launch it and run all the cleaning tasks.

Restart in Safe Boot mode by holding down the Shift key. Log into your account and restart again.

See where that takes you.

WAHOOOOO!!! After a lot of restarting and fixing.... it's .... fixed!
Thanks so much for your help. I appreciate it.
Jon

Glad it's solved!

ACK! My problem is back.
I am getting the same error messages again. I tried to run the Keychain First Aid, and got the same error messages. Is there anything else I can do?
Jon

There's an incompatibility somewhere looks like. If after cleaning up all those caches and the problem still happens, there is some kind of software that is interfering with the correct OS behaviour.

When this started happening, between 11-27-2007 when it was working perfectly, what did you change? Did you change anything? Installed new software? Added a new peripheral to your setup? Changed anything in your user settings? Downloaded any files?

Well, let's see....
I installed AppDelete
I installed PhotoZoom Pro 2
I installed Rumpus
I installed YouSendIt (they have a downloadable program now)
I installed MainMenu - however that was after the problem

And I think that's all I have done.
I haven't added any peripherals or added to my system at all in any other way. Actually it seemed like it all started after Thanksgiving, where my computer had started up and was trying to connect to servers that were shut off for the holiday. I came in on Monday, and it was asking for my password all over the place.

Jon