I have an account on my computer that is basically a placeholder for a business venture. I registered an AppleID for it and set up my services, but rarely ever log in under that user name on my iMac. Since I recently upgraded to Mojave I decided to switch to that user name today and see if anything on that account needed maintenance. App updates, the inevitable "Apple helpfully decided to turn on all these iCloud-based services to gain access to my info" kind of thing*.
When I got in to the account, I was greeted with the dialog "There was a problem logging in to iCloud for Messages", another one popped up for Updates, another one for Mail. I get that from time to time on various devices and I'm not at all close to figuring out why. I click the red dot to close those windows and ignore them. Everything still works normally. I can send and receive mail, messages, and update free apps.
This time I decided to get in to the AppleID for this account. I realized that it had been so long since I used it that even though I remembered my login password, I couldn't remember the AppleID password. Thats usually no problem, I just go into Safari and reveal the passwords, done. But I apparently never logged into iCloud from Safari on that account.
So I went into Keychain Access, and clicked on the item for that user ID. I entered my login password and KA revealed a hash string for that ID, not the password. I then clicked to reveal the password for every item in the KA list, and all I got was hashed info.
Where is this AppleID password stored? I seem to remember it was one of the "com.apple.gs.gtfo.xyz.pdq" strings but nothing I clicked revealed a plain text password.
* I always have a great adventure searching my devices after an update to see what new thing Apple opts me in to without asking. For the last three system upgrades the most prevalent combination was "Find My Mac", Notes, Calendars. Before that it was Photos and Safari. This latest one was Siri, News, Stocks and Home. On my iPhones it likes to turn on the various photo sharing and photo backup stuff. Why do they ignore the previous settings? Because its a great way to get around the letter of their stated privacy policies. "Of course we care about your privacy, but your device volunteered to send that to us. You must have set it to do that and then forgot".
If Apple must know, my iMac is on my desk in my office; the computer with the microphone that they keep turning on, the one that I have to leave both Keyboard/Dictation and Midi Devices open on the desktop to make sure the mic is disabled. I'm not sure why they think I'd need an iCloud service to tell me where that is at.
When I got in to the account, I was greeted with the dialog "There was a problem logging in to iCloud for Messages", another one popped up for Updates, another one for Mail. I get that from time to time on various devices and I'm not at all close to figuring out why. I click the red dot to close those windows and ignore them. Everything still works normally. I can send and receive mail, messages, and update free apps.
This time I decided to get in to the AppleID for this account. I realized that it had been so long since I used it that even though I remembered my login password, I couldn't remember the AppleID password. Thats usually no problem, I just go into Safari and reveal the passwords, done. But I apparently never logged into iCloud from Safari on that account.
So I went into Keychain Access, and clicked on the item for that user ID. I entered my login password and KA revealed a hash string for that ID, not the password. I then clicked to reveal the password for every item in the KA list, and all I got was hashed info.
Where is this AppleID password stored? I seem to remember it was one of the "com.apple.gs.gtfo.xyz.pdq" strings but nothing I clicked revealed a plain text password.
* I always have a great adventure searching my devices after an update to see what new thing Apple opts me in to without asking. For the last three system upgrades the most prevalent combination was "Find My Mac", Notes, Calendars. Before that it was Photos and Safari. This latest one was Siri, News, Stocks and Home. On my iPhones it likes to turn on the various photo sharing and photo backup stuff. Why do they ignore the previous settings? Because its a great way to get around the letter of their stated privacy policies. "Of course we care about your privacy, but your device volunteered to send that to us. You must have set it to do that and then forgot".
If Apple must know, my iMac is on my desk in my office; the computer with the microphone that they keep turning on, the one that I have to leave both Keyboard/Dictation and Midi Devices open on the desktop to make sure the mic is disabled. I'm not sure why they think I'd need an iCloud service to tell me where that is at.