Apple is prepping a deceptively significant upgrade in iOS 15.4, iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3. It’s an improvement to iCloud Keychain, in which you can keep your passwords and other secure information updated across all of your Apple devices: Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
iCloud Keychain remembers things, so that you don’t have to. It auto-fills your information — like your Safari usernames and passwords, credit card numbers and expiration dates (without storing or autofilling the security code), Wi-Fi passwords, Internet accounts, and more on any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch that you approve.
You’ll know iCloud Keychain, even if you don’t think you do. It’s the system where when you need to log into a website, you see the box turn yellow and the username and password populate the fields automatically. It’s drop-dead brilliant.
Except, sometimes it only saves the password, leaving you struggling to remember what the username is next time you visit.
Well, the good news is that with iOS 15.4, iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3, If you create a new password, but Safari can’t quite tell exactly which username goes with it, a pop-up menu will ask you to enter the username. It’ll say “To save this password, enter the username for your thisorthat.com account.”
Simple, huh? And while it might sound like a minor change, it’s deceptively significant one and will offer a big step forward in terms of convenience.
MacDailyNews Note: One dialog box can make all the difference.
If you don’t have it on already, turn on iCloud Keychain on your Mac:
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences
- Click Apple ID, then click iCloud in the sidebar. In macOS Mojave or earlier, click iCloud.
- Select Keychain.*
If you choose to “Approve Later” when signing into your Apple ID, you need to approve with an old passcode or from another device when prompted. If you’re unable to approve, reset your end-to-end encrypted data when prompted.
To turn on iCloud Keychain on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
- Tap Settings, tap [your name], then choose iCloud.
- Tap Keychain.*
- Slide to turn on iCloud Keychain. You might be asked for your passcode or Apple ID password.
*On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 13 or later, or on your Mac with macOS Catalina or later, two-factor authentication is required to turn on iCloud Keychain. If you haven’t set it up yet, you’re prompted to update to two-factor authentication.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
I will stick with 1Password. It saves a whole lot more for you as well.
Does “deceptively significant upgrade” include the removal of or addition of the backdoor scan ‘for the children’ ?
I admire that MacDailyNews.com was up in arms about this Apple Backdoor System … one of the reasons that upgrades to iOS 15 and perhaps MacxOS have been slower? But it seems every week, I’m seeing some reasons from MDN that I SHOULD upgrade to iOS 15.
Please tell me: How does this news of new features in iOS 15 assist in the goal of stopping Apple from implementing its Back Door scheme? Rather, does it not promote upgrades ?
Or have we all just given up?
Sad…
Hmm. If it’s “deceptively significant,” that means it appears to be significant but it’s not really.
Grammar is dead.
Hey J, is grammar being dead deceptively significant?
I don’t use those features specifically because they are connected to iCloud and my Apple ID. Unless a user is protected from the company themselves, it ain’t protection, and I don’t want my vital data being reliant upon a network connection. Silicon Valley (at least millennial SV and younger) still doesn’t seem to understand that 90% of their users do not live in the bubbled milieu of northern California. For the average low info user I guess that might be great; I will continue to pass and use other options, thanks.
So no, for the power users, these updates are a big nothing burger and actually trend in a direction that is undesirable. When keychain access first debuted and seemed novel, we relied on networks far, far, FAR less, and tech companies (other than Microsoft) would not have dreamed of behaving like FB, Amazon, or even yes, Apple.
I know those kids think they are heir apparent to Steve Jobs, but no, they are mini Gateses and Ballmers. We currently live in a second dark age of computing, it began with unicorns and web 2.0, and it is absolutely said ingenues’ fault.
There once was an odd mag called Forbes
Who thought women’s breasts were called orbs
They’re deceptively dumb
Headlines from their bum
Whatever’s weird, that Forbes sure absorbs!
Mini Gateses and Ballmers is right. There are few of the calibre of Jobs, most are just clueless tyrants like Gates who was “friends with Epstein” and Ballmer who was too dumb to recognize the power of the iphone.
The effing downvote scum must have been “friends with Epstein”, too. I hope you disgusting peds get EXPOSED
It’s disturbing that there are so many pedophiles reading MDN who downvote a statement that they mustDIE.
These must be Android using morons spreading their hate. Sad.
It so funny that this is being advertised as a new powerful feature, because it has always been part of keychain.
Although not automatic, keychain on Macs has always let you choose you own item name and account name, plus the type of password you wanted to use, but it is good to see that Apple have got around to implementing this on iPhones and iPads after it being absent in the iOS versions for so long?