Apple KBase Article: Resetting your keychain in OS X

02.23.07 | Apple, How To...

Resetting your keychain in Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4: If Keychain First Aid finds an issue that it cannot repair, or if you do not know your keychain password, you may need to reset your keychain. (Resetting a keychain deletes a keychain reference while preserving the keychain file.)

Here’s a good Apple Knowledge Base article about resetting your login keychain to keep on hand in your browser favorites. The only thing I would add to it, which isn’t made clear; resetting your keychain in this manner will rename your old keychain to “login_renamed#.keychain” (where # is a number), which can be opened manually in Keychain Access again to copy digital certificates and other passwords to the new login.keychain — this is presuming, of course, that your old keychain is not so corrupt that it can’t be opened.

To add the old “login_renamed” keychain to your current keychains, select “Keychain List” from the “Edit” menu of the Keychain Access application. In the sheet that appears, click the “plus” button at the lower left (next to the help button). A file open dialog appears in which you can select the keychain. Once you do, you’ll see it added to the list. Click “Okay” to close the sheet.

If you don’t already see your keychains in the upper left pane of the main window, click the “Show Keychains” button in the lower left of the window. From there, you can drag and drop keychain items from the old, renamed version to the new one.

Once you’re done moving items from the old keychain, click it once to highlight it, and select “Delete Keychain [keychain name here]” from the File menu. In the dialog sheet that appears, choose to only “Delete References” (the default button). This will remove all references to the old keychain, leaving it intact (not moving it to the trash) in your home folder in case you missed an item and have to do the process all over again.

A couple of final thoughts…

You should always try repairing your keychain before resetting it. Resetting should only be considered as a last ditch effort. By resetting, you’re wiping out all passwords you’ve stored for applications, websites, etc.

I would also recommend that you regularly (weekly, if not daily) backup your keychains to a safe place off of your computer, along with your other critical data. By doing so, you may save yourself the misery of having to work your way through this post.