iCloud keychain locks itself all the time

[icymountain]

For the last week, my laptop (running macOS Sierra) keeps asking for the iCloud password. Looking at the keychain application, it seems the iCloud keychain locks itself all the time, and this gets annoying. I cannot seem to find a way to address this specific issue.

Should I reset my iCloud keychain ?

I would very much like to avoid losing all my passwords...

 

[QzzB]

When is it asking for the password? Do you also get the same when using the iCloud Control Panel? There might be a problem with your authentication to iCloud, have had this on my iPhone before where it randomly asks me for my password

 

[icymountain]

This happens whenever I log on this computer (at startup or after I wake it from sleep.
It does not happen on any other of my devices though...

 

[QzzB]

Just did some checks, and there are settings for this. If you go into Keychain Access, and right-click (CTRL Click) on the login keychain and choose Change settings. There are some settings for locking the keychain after times and when the computer sleeps.

Might be worth checking the iCloud keychain as well?

 

[icymountain]

Thanks for your help. I compared the "login" keychain settings with those of another mac, and they are the same (in particular, "lock when sleeping" is disabled). I cannot get into the settings of the iCloud keychain (the option is greyed out).

 

[QzzB]

Im not sure then unfortunately, thats a very specific problem. I think thats the only place that the keychain locks, I cannot seem to find anything else that refers to how to lock the keychain. Might have some corruption or another setting I'm not aware of

 

[icymountain]

Thanks. Even if not the reply I was hoping for, it is good to have an external opinion... Of course, any other idea is more than welcome.

Otherwise, it may end up as fifteen years ago, during my last M$ Windows days: a Spring time clean re-install of the OS.

 

[QzzB]

Thanks. Even if not the reply I was hoping for, it is good to have an external opinion... Of course, any other idea is more than welcome.

Otherwise, it may end up as fifteen years ago, during my last M$ Windows days: a Spring time clean re-install of the OS.

The only last thing I can think of would be to turn off iCloud Keychain in the preferences and make sure it has gone from keychain access, possibly reboot a few times to see if it is still locked. If it is. Might be the login keychain is corrput which can be recreated.

If the problem goes away reactivate iCloud Keychain. Might reset whatever is cofused

 

[icymountain]

Thanks, I have tried this, but it does not make it look any better.

After deactivating iCloud, the computer was asking for one infinitely many passwords to use the "login" keychain (popups coming as soon as I entered the password of the previous one, with apps I entered the password to coming up again). The machine is essentially unusable now. That much closer to the clean re-install. Upon closer inspection, it seems that reactivating the iCloud keychain does not seem to do anything... More interestingly, my "login" keychain password seems synchronised with my OLD iCloud account password.

Very frustrating ! What a stupid piece of garbage Keychain is, I cannot believe it.
[doublepost=1487344442][/doublepost]As a last resort attempt, I am changing all my passwords (login and iCloud) to the same thing. I just cannot understand why the "login" keychain inherited some old iCloud account asking for it (and also, it is a password I do not use anymore ----it is quite fortunate I remembered it and had the idea to try it out).

 

[alfon_sico]

It happens to me since I update to 10.12.4 last beta. It doesn't make unusable for now, system ask when I reboot and try to load Safari for the first time. I write down 4-5 times my password and it works for all the day

I guess if I'm suffering malware attack. How could I know if its a beta bug or a virus attack?

 

[icymountain]

The laptop where I have this problem is running 10.12.1, so it is clearly not a 10.12.4 beta specific issue.
I have been looking up here and in other websites and it seems that this usually is just some kind of corruption of the keychain. So, if that is reassuring to you, I would say I do not think it is a malware.

In the other hand, I have found no satisfactory documentation on how keychain works so far, that would allow me to do a proper troubleshooting...

 

[icymountain]

Update:

I have removed the files with a name made of a series of hexadecimal characters in the Library/Keychain/ directory of my user account a few days ago.
It seems the issue is not showing up anymore.
I cannot be fully sure that this is what solved the problem, nor why it did (if it did), but I wanted to keep the thread up to date with the last info, in case that can be useful to others.

 

[alfon_sico]

Please point at my folder the files you would erase
(some pixel was blur in the picture for security reason)

 

[icymountain]

I erased the equivalent of the 3F0D23... file and of the 5F5DDF... repository. I did not touch anything else.

I am not sure this will help in your case, and cannot guarantee the results, but in my case, the keychain did not lose any password, and stoped bugging me.

Here is a link that explains the details of the procedure I did follow:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473260?tstart=0

I note you have to reboot afterwards, which I forgot to mention. I hope it helps...

 

[alfon_sico]

It fix partially the problem
Before that system ask four times till I can open Safari
Now I only receive two questions:
CALLHISTORYPLUGINHELPER for "login session" (free translate from spanish "inicio de sesión"
SAFARI for "local items"

 

[icymountain]

Is it still the case after rebooting ?
I did get many password requests at some point before fixing it, but not these two...

 

[alfon_sico]

Yes, after reboot two times this questions persist

 

[icymountain]

Ah, sorry, I have no idea then...