Keychain Access

[sheri]

I've started having problems with Keychain Access and I don't know why; I haven't changed anything. (see configuration below).

All of a sudden, the system asks for the keychain password every so often. Many times it's "FileSyncAgent wants to use the "login" keychain", other times it's "Mail wants to use the "login" keychain", etc. If I type in the keychain password, which is the same as my login password, the dialog box goes away and things are alright for another hour or so when I'm asked about accessing the keychain.

I've read all of keychain help, I've searched the Apple support site, I've run keychain first aid (no errors appeared), I've tried locking the keychain, unlocking the keychain, but the problem still persists.

I am the only user of the iMac and I am set up as the administrator.

Specs:

iMac
Mac OS X 10.6.2

I think that's the only info needed; the iMac is pretty new, it was purchased in May 2009.

Thanks for any help with this.

Sheri

 

[MacsWork]

Delete the Mail and mobileme keychain items and recreate them.

 

[sheri]

Alright, I've deleted the mobileme keychain item. It was "recreated" when I logged onto mobileme just now. Hopefully that will take care of part of the problem.

When you say delete the Mail keychain item, I'm not sure what you're referring to. I've looked at all of the entries in my login keychain (which is the only one I have) and there isn't anything that appears to be an item for Mail. Did I misunderstand your suggestion or is there something/someplace else I should look?

Thanks so much for the reply; hopefully I now have half the problem solved.

Sheri

 

[sheri]

Apparently, deleting the mobileme keychain item didn't solve the problem, as the message "FileSyncAgent wants to use the "login" keychain" has started appearing again.
Help??

Sheri

 

[MacsWork]

Create a new keychain call it temp. Drag all items into it. Delete the login keychain. Rename temp keychain to login.

 

[sheri]

I created the new keychain and dragged everything to it. I've tried to delete the login keychain - it does show that it's empty - but it still appears in the keychain column on the left side of the window. The icon next to it is now a blank square. In the upper left corner, it shows the lock as locked, next to it it says "Read only".

Since I can't seem to delete the old login keychain completely, I can't rename the new one to login. Is there another way to delete the old login keychain?

Thanks.

Sheri

 

[MacsWork]

Keychains live in /Users/username/Library/Keychains

Close KA and do the delete and rename in the Finder providing the temp keychain exists already.

 

[sheri]

I followed your directions. When I went back into keychain access, all the info showed up under the login keychain (formerly the temp keychain.) And, there was still a blank keychain there, but it's called Temp and it doesn't show up in Finder so I can't seem to delete it. I can live with that if I don't continue to have problems with the login keychain.

A few minutes later I received a dialog asking for the mobileme password, even though I wasn't accessing mobileme. I put in the password and received a dialog that said the password was incorrect (it wasn't).

Bottom line: I'll need to rebuild all of my logins in the keychain but apparently there are still problems. It's all very strange.

I do appreciate your continued help.

Sheri

 

[sheri]

Everything started to get so mucked up with keychain access and Mail wouldn't retain its password. I did some more searching at the Apple support site and there was an article re: Mail not retaining the password. I followed the instructions: Ran Disk Utility, Repair Disk and problems were found. I researched the error message and found I needed to restart the iMac from the installation disk and then run Repair Disk.

After all of that, everything appears to be fine and hopefully will stay that way.

I can't thank you enough for all of your help; it's wonderful to have a place to turn to when problems arise.

Sheri