all of a sudden gettin keychain access popup???

[metalmania222]

Hi guys!

I'm a new switcher and lovin osx!

Everything was fine until I forgot my password to log onto my macbook.
I followed the instructions and inserted the osx disc, holded down c, and was able to reset my password.

Upon loging back in, when using ichat and safari and other stuff, i keep getting popups from keychain access telling me if i want to allow it to use the passwords and all that stuff.

I really don't understand how keychain access works, i just want to know that everything is running normal. It wouldn't prompt for stuff like that before so i dont know why all of a sudden its doing that. Thorugh the options I put the always allow option so it won't bug me everytime i wanna log into ichat or any other app requirng a password.

I just wanted to know that everything is normal and If i should worry about anything, especially messing around with the keychain access options.

Thanks!

 

[yippy]

That is normal, every time you change your login password or update a program that accesses keychain you will get one or more of those popups. They are there so that you know who has the right to access it has changed in case you didn't allow that.

Keychain is a program to keep all of your passwords/internet logins in a convenient encrypted file. By default, the password to access all of the data in it is the same as your user password and the keychain automatically "unlocks" (allows the passwords to be read from it) when you log in. However, the password does not have to be the same as your login password. Because you changed your password it is now asking if it is ok for each application to use the "new" keychain (created with the new password).


In short:
Essentially that is a safety measure to keep bad applications from having access to your stored passwords.

 

[Nar1117]

Yes yes. Keychains are very handy. You can have your iChat password stored in your root keychain so that you just click on iChat and your buddy list will appear, with no prompt for a password. OS X's Mail uses it, Safari uses it, and Certificates of Authenticity, like connecting to a server, sometimes use keychains. Very handy for those paranoid folk like me .