Mac Apps Not Remembering Passwords? Fix Quickly By Repairing Keychain Access
Is Safari no longer remembering logins and passwords? Is Mail.app asking for a password every time you launch the app and try to check or send mail, despite the fact that you’ve entered login credentials over and over? When a Mac app no longer remembers password and login data, it’s often the result of corrupted keychain files. This is easy to fix in three easy steps with Keychain Access first aid.
- Use Spotlight by hitting Command+Spacebar and then type “Keychain Access” and hit return
- Open the “Keychain Access” menu and choose “Keychain First Aid”
- Enter the users password and check the “Repair” box, then click “Start”
After keychain repairs are completed, exit out of Keychain Access and return to the application that wasn’t remembering the login and password information. You may be asked one more time for the login, but from this point on it should remember it.
You can use the same fix when a Mac won’t remember wi-fi passwords, though forgetting networks is resolved through Repairing Permissions instead.
This process will be the same for Mac OS X 10.6, OS X 10.7, and OS X 10.8, OS X 10.9. You are welcome to verify the keychain configuration before repairing it, but there’s little reason to not jump straight to the repair process.
I do not have a repair option on keychain access.
Is this option in Sierra?
I don’t see it.
Thanks.
The setup for OS Sierra is different, I have these options set, but it still asks for every password for every site every time I reboot.
You might wonder why they cant figure out how to detect errors automatically, or stop the keychain from getting corrupted in the first place.
I had this problem and this solution did not work, but I went into Finder>Applications>Utilities>Keychain Access>Preferences and Press Reset My Default Keychain.
You might lose some of the other passwords stored in your keychain, but it did the trick for me (On Mail).
It says no problems found but mail asks for passwords quite often.
It still doesn’t work
Seems to have worked in mail app, pity Applecare couldn’t help me out. Had to enter password manually until i came a cross this and Applecare call didn’t help. Fingers crossed it stays working. Thanks for this, keep up good work