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How to Delete Keychain on Mac: Apple Keychain does a great job of keeping your website, app, and wireless network login information safe on your Mac. It can even automatically fill in passwords across all Apple devices by syncing data over iCloud.
But as you use your Mac more and more, you may need to delete passwords from your default login keychain. In some cases, you may even have to reset the keychain and start over.
How to Delete Keychain on Mac
- Open Keychain Access from the Utilities folder
- Go to Preferences in the Keychain Access menu
- Click Reset My Default Keychain
- Enter the new password to match your account’s password
- Log out of your device so that it returns to the login screen
- Log in using your new password
- When logging back in, it may prompt the following “Do you want to: Create a new keychain or update?”
- Choose “create new” on login
Why Clear the Keychain?
With such a great, useful, safe, and well-functioning app, you might wonder why you’d ever want to clear the passwords and information it stores. Well, people do forget their passwords sometimes. You must have had this happen to you before. On the other hand, you may have had a security breach and want to change all of your passwords.
When you clear your keychain, you get rid of a set of safe account information. This is often done when changing email addresses, and the whole process is very simple and clear. This is also what people do when they give or sell their Mac.
Introducing the Keychain
The macOS Keychain works by securely saving your login information so that it can store certificates, credit card numbers, and other secure information. Keychain data is secured locally on your device, unless you have iCloud Keychain enabled, which syncs this data all across your Apple devices.
Keychain can also suggest passwords that are super secure and complex, including numbers, symbols, and random characters. These are then saved on your system and entered automatically when you want to log in later on, saving you the hassle of remembering a password.
FAQ
Keychain data is stored (assuming you are signed into your Apple Account on the phone) in iCloud and synced to all your devices signed into iCloud. Just turn off iCloud Keychain and (assuming that App does indeed use iCloud keychain) will all be gone from your phone.
The password of your macOS user account might not match the password of your login keychain. Either create a new login keychain or update it with your new password.
Keychains are usually located in the Keychains folder in the Library folder in your home folder. To locate these files, press and hold the Option key and choose Go > Library, then open the Keychains folder.
iCloud Keychain is Apple’s built-in password manager for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. With iCloud Keychain, you can keep your passwords and other secure information updated across all your Apple devices. iCloud Keychain remembers things, so that you don’t have to.