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10.4.4 killed keychain access

S

Synapple

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2004
243
0
Rome, Italy
Hi all,

I updated to 10.4.4 a few days ago and everything went smooth for quite some time.
Today I had to restart my Mac mini and after logging in, my keychain doesn't work anymore.

I have tried the suggestion found here and on other forums (i.e. create a new login keychain) but keychain access will stop in the middle of the process.
I have tried using keychain first aid (reset keychain) but the process quits (see weird screenshot attached).

I find that under library/keychains I do have a system keychain but miss the login keychain (which is exactly the reason why keychain first aid fails to verify).

Basically, how can I solve this? Do I create a new login keychain from scratch? How do I do that if when I try the process quits?

Thanks for any help!
 

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Have you tried the usual mumbo jumbo™, ie. repairing permissions and deleting/moving ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.keychainaccess.plist?

And does it work if you log in to another account on your Mac mini (make one if you have to)?
 
Thx for your reply.

Yes, I had done a couple of permissions' repair, I trashed preferences, I restarted, I tried on a new account (first a guest account, then an admin account) and the problem persists.

I have no idea what else I could try.
 
I'm having the same problem and have done everything from above and I can't get my keychain working either.
 
Yep, tride resetting PRAM and NVRAM but didn't fix it.

As njmac, I have tried everything that could come up to my mind but I'm SOL for now.

Anymore suggestions? :(
 
I'm using 10.4.4, and accidently dumped my keychains. Now the keychain app will not remember the keychains as I add them back one at a time, over and over.
 
It is indeed very annoying, as I now have to enter my (several) different passwords for anything I do (internet, mail, forums, bank account, shopping, groups, eBay, etc.).

I have looked everywhere for a solution and can't find any... I am psychologically getting ready to go back and do an archive and install up to 10.4.3 :rolleyes:
 
i dont know if its possible. but i would try re-installing the 10.4.4 update.

i think you can do this by downloading the update from Apple's site
 
When you tried to repair the keychain did it fix all the permissions? I had something similiar to this and managed to fix it by reassigning the permissions to the files mentioned.
 
Gordy said:
When you tried to repair the keychain did it fix all the permissions? I had something similiar to this and managed to fix it by reassigning the permissions to the files mentioned.
Click to expand...

This is what happens when I try to repair the keychain (see screenshot attached)
 

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Synapple said:
This is what happens when I try to repair the keychain (see screenshot attached)
Click to expand...
...but the file (/Users/yourlogin/Library/Keychains/login.keychain not in /Library/Keychans/) is really there, when you look in Finder...?
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
...but the file (/Users/yourlogin/Library/Keychains/login.keychain not in /Library/Keychans/) is really there, when you look in Finder...?
Click to expand...

Nope, it's not there at all!

The only files in that folder are system.keychain and Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates...

Is it really bad? Do I need to reinstall? :confused:
 
Synapple said:
It is indeed very annoying, as I now have to enter my (several) different passwords for anything I do (internet, mail, forums, bank account, shopping, groups, eBay, etc.).

I have looked everywhere for a solution and can't find any... I am psychologically getting ready to go back and do an archive and install up to 10.4.3 :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I deleted the login.keychain file, logged in again (which re-created the login.keychain file), and used iSync to restore my keychains 100%. Whewwww! That was worth the price of .Mac membership alone. :D
 
Synapple said:
Nope, it's not there at all!

The only files in that folder are system.keychain and Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates...

Is it really bad? Do I need to reinstall? :confused:
Click to expand...
What...? Isn't system.keychain and that unspeakable one (;)) in /Library/Keychains/ :confused:

That is not the same folder as ~/Library/Keychains/ (aka /Users/yourname/Library/Keychains/). Are you sure there's nothing in that folder...?

If there's not (or if you find it and delete it) you should get a new login.keychain when you reboot, as bigboy99 said, and if not just try to make one in Keychain Access call it login and make sure you put it in /Users/yourname/Library/Keychains/ and not /Library/Keychains/.
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
What...? Isn't system.keychain and that unspeakable one (;)) in /Library/Keychains/ :confused:

That is not the same folder as ~/Library/Keychains/ (aka /Users/yourname/Library/Keychains/). Are you sure there's nothing in that folder...?

If there's not (or if you find it and delete it) you should get a new login.keychain when you reboot, as bigboy99 said, and if not just try to make one in Keychain Access call it login and make sure you put it in /Users/yourname/Library/Keychains/ and not /Library/Keychains/.
Click to expand...

Nope, system.keychain and the unmentionable file are in /users/username/library/keychains... and I am just not able to create a new login keychain (or any other keychain for that matter) as I get the "something else went wrong" error that you can see in the first screenshot I attached.

Actually, I just can't do anything in keychain... for example, when I open the app I get an empty keychain which is called "unknown" and is locked. Any options to act on the keychain (unlock, add, etc.) are greyed out.
That leads to believe the application is really screwed... :eek:
 
home/library/keychain/login.keychain.

Take an hour or two (depending on your amount of RAM) and Install & Archive 10.4.3. Then install .4. Then individually re-enter your password at every opportunity. No bueno, but the best solution to get past this issue.
:( :mad: :eek:
 
Ok, now I have now idea... the only things I can think of, apart from an Archive and Install, is to follow PlaceofDis' advice from above and download the 10.4.4 updater from Apple (the 55 MB delta if you upgraded from 10.4.3 or the 120 MB combo if you went directly from an earlier version). :confused:
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Ok, now I have now idea... the only things I can think of, apart from an Archive and Install, is to follow PlaceofDis' advice from above and download the 10.4.4 updater from Apple (the 55 MB delta if you upgraded from 10.4.3 or the 120 MB combo if you went directly from an earlier version). :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do as soon as I get back home from work. I guess my update just got corrupted somehow.

Thank you guys for your help... I'll report back later today ;)
 
Synapple said:
Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do as soon as I get back home from work. I guess my update just got corrupted somehow.

Thank you guys for your help... I'll report back later today ;)
Click to expand...

One more thing... (no pun intended): I originally updated from 10.4.3. Would it hurt if I reinstall the Combo instead of the Delta? (The reason why I'm asking is that that's the one I downloaded and I am leaving my office practically now!)

Cheers!
 
My recollection is you cannot update multiple times. If you've already done so you most likely need to re-install .x from the disks, and then upgrade again to .4 with delta or combo versions.

Apple Support warns that upgrading to .4 will not necessarily fix corruptions in previous OS versions, only software bugs.
 
bigboy99 said:
My recollection is you cannot update multiple times. If you've already done so you most likely need to re-install .x from the disks, and then upgrade again to .4 with delta or combo versions.

Apple Support warns that upgrading to .4 will not necessarily fix corruptions in previous OS versions, only software bugs.
Click to expand...

Oh really? I thought some posts on other threads suggested you could... thx for letting me know, then!

Oh well, nevermind... I've got my combo update in the pen drive and I'm ready to give archive+install a good go! :D

P.S. BTW, I'm pretty sure that my previous OS upgrades didn't have any corruptions at all... my keychain was working silky smooth until 10.4.4. blatantly killed it.
 
Update

Alright... I went ahead and, while having dinner, I let my archive and install run. I then updated to 10.4.4 (and to Quicktime 7.4... another update I hear has a bad reputation).

The process was very smooth and fast and my keychain is working again!

Too bad I lost all my passwords (some of which I can't even remember) and had to go through the reinstall, but I'm so glad it's working now!

I think I'll archive the case then... fingers crossed!

:D
 
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