“Wi-Fi, Mail, user names and more – all these passwords are kept inside Keychain Access,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“Your system uses these and will require a password (usually your Mac account password) if you want to take a look at any of the passwords it holds,” Evans writes. “If you use iCloud Keychain these passwords are also made available across all of your approved devices, which is why your Keychain password matters so much.”
“Has your Mac suddenly started asking you for account and Wi-Fi passwords it never used to require before? Is your Mail app asking you to enter the password relentlessly?,” Evans asks. “Then there’s a good chance Apple’s password management system, Keychain Access, has a problem, but don’t panic — we’ve got you covered.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: For more information about Keychain Access, including how to copy keychains to other Macs, Apple’s Keychain Access support documents are here.
Is there a way to keep keychains in sync between Snow Leopard and Maverick systems (I run both)?
Keychain sync requires Yosemite or higher. However you could manually copy the Keychain files to a cloud service like Copy and move the files on a regular basis.
I use the “Secure Notes” feature heavily to store all my important passwords, financial account numbers / login info, etc. Its a lot of work to set up, but a godsend later on at the most unexpected times.
Also its useful to go through every once in a while and delete old unused WiFi logins etc.
That’s true but you can’t read Secure Notes on iOS devices. Only passwords (and only Safari passwords).
That being said I also do the same. I mostly use secure notes for credit card data which is not necessary now with iCloud Keychain which keeps that info in sync between Safari on iOS and OS X
1password has worked for me for years. Also, compatible with my iPhone and iPad. Share passwords, program keys and notes securely.