Not all items form Keychain Access are under the Passwords App

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Created 20h

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In the process of updating several Apple devices to OS 27.0.1, I accidentally updated my main workstation from Sequoia to Golden Gate. I had intended to do this, but not this soon.

Now I find that the Keychain Access App no longer takes my login password to unlock items.

Unfortunately, the Passwords App does not allow me to see a number of things that are stored in the Keychain Access App: e.g. Secure Notes. But in this case the problem is an application password for an IRC client. I have no way of recovering my IRC account unless I can supply the password to Keychain Access.

Answered by DTS Engineer in 907302022

I accidentally updated my main workstation from Sequoia to Golden Gate.

D’oh!

Unfortunately, the Passwords App does not allow me to see a number of things that are stored in the Keychain Access App

Right. Passwords is very much focused on… well… passwords [1] and only deals with the data protection keychain. Keychain Access is the way to work with items in the file-based keychain, including secure notes.

If you’re unfamiliar with these terms, they’re explained in TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations.

As to why you can’t unlock your login keychain, I don’t have a definitive answer to that. My best guess is that it’s related to the protected entropy file stuff described in the most recent update to TN3137. However, to determine exactly what happened would require a lot more digging.

Do you have a backup of this Mac before you upgraded? If so, you could try to recover your login keychain from that. I have instructions on how to do that, for a very different reason, in The Care and Feeding of Developer ID.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

[1] Oh, and passkeys.

Answer 1

marius OP

20h

I've managed to reset the IRC password, however I have three critical notes with security question pairs for an airline and two financial institutions that I can no longer access.

Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

11h

Recommended

I accidentally updated my main workstation from Sequoia to Golden Gate.

D’oh!

Unfortunately, the Passwords App does not allow me to see a number of things that are stored in the Keychain Access App

Right. Passwords is very much focused on… well… passwords [1] and only deals with the data protection keychain. Keychain Access is the way to work with items in the file-based keychain, including secure notes.

If you’re unfamiliar with these terms, they’re explained in TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations.

As to why you can’t unlock your login keychain, I don’t have a definitive answer to that. My best guess is that it’s related to the protected entropy file stuff described in the most recent update to TN3137. However, to determine exactly what happened would require a lot more digging.

Do you have a backup of this Mac before you upgraded? If so, you could try to recover your login keychain from that. I have instructions on how to do that, for a very different reason, in The Care and Feeding of Developer ID.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

[1] Oh, and passkeys.

Answer 3

marius OP

2h

As someone who used multiple features of Keychain Access over the years, while it has a cleaner interface, I find Passwords underwhelming.

BTW, Keychain Access lets me get at items in the iCloud Keychain with my login password.

Unfortunately, as the update was supposed to be from macOS 15.8 to 15.8.1, rather than 27.0.1, I didn't make a bootable backup.

Other than system files, my data lives on a separate NextCloud server (with off-site back-ups), so I normally don't worry too much when upgrading.