How to Reset Forgotten Keychain Password on Mac

July 13, 2022Ashley Mae

If you have already saved all passwords to Keychain Access, you can simply use the auto-fill feature instead of your memory to get the passwords. What should you do if you forgot the Keychain password on your Mac? How do you retrieve or reset the forgotten Keychain password on Mac? Here are some workable ways to get back the desired files.

Forgot Keychain Password

Part 1: How to Repair Forgotten Keychain Password on Mac

Have you updated the Keychain password recently? If you just get an error message, such as UNIX [Invalid argument], instead of resetting the forgotten Keychain password, you can use Keychain First Aid to repair and retrieve it without resetting. Just learn more about the process below.

Step 1:
Go to the Applications folder of your MacBook, you can choose the Utilities folder to locate the Keychain Access icon. After that, launch the Keychain Access program to repair the password.
Step 2:
Hover over the menu to choose the Keychain First Aid option. Enter the user name and password you have changed. After that, you can check the Repair option before clicking the Start button.

Note: If you forget the correct Keychain password, you can simply click the Verify button to check the passwords you can think of. It is the workable way to check and fix unsteady Keychains.

Keychain First Aid

Part 2: How to Reset Forgotten Keychain Password on Mac

Since the Keychain First Aid is not available for macOS 10.11 or above, you have to reset the forgotten keychain password on Mac directly. Just learn more about the steps below.

Reset Forgotten Keychain Password with Another Administrator

When you have two or more administrator accounts within the same MacBook, you can use the credentials for a different admin account you have created on the Mac to reset the forgotten keychain password.

Step 1:
Log in to your MacBook with the user name and credentials for the administrator account. Go to the Apple menu when you get into the MacBook and choose the System Preferences option.
Step 2:
Choose the Users & Groups option and click the padlock icon. After that, you can select the user name of the forgotten Keychain password from the drop-down list.
Step 3:
Click the Reset Password option, you can enter a new password, verify, and a password hint to reset it. Take a note of the password and you can click the Change Password option.
Step 4:
Once you have reset the forgotten keychain password, you can simply log out from the account and log in to the MacBook again with the account you have forgotten the Keychain password.
Reset Forgotten Passowrd Admin

Create New Keychain Password and Reset My Default Keychain

You had a new password to log in to the account. Because of the discrepancy between the user account password and login Keychain password, you still cannot unlock the login keychain.

When you get the error message that you cannot unlock your login keychain, you can click the Create New Keychain option if you forget the old Keychain password.

Step 1:
Follow the same process to go to the Keychain Access app on Mac. Choose the Preferences option from the Keychain Access menu, then click the Reset My Default Keychain button.
Step 2:
Once you have entered the new password, it will revert to the factory defaults and create a new empty "login" keychain. After that, you can click the OK button to confirm.
Step 3:
Go to the Login screen by logging out of your account using the Apple menu. After that, you can use the newly created Keychain password to get the desired information on your MacBook.
Reset Keychain Password Forgotten

Part 3: Retrieve Files after Resetting Forgotten Keychain Password

Even if you have retrieved or reset the forgotten Keychain password, you will find some important files missing. To retrieve the files for different situations, Aiseesoft Data Recovery is the best data recovery for Mac that capable of retrieving files from hard drives, memory cards, etc.

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Part 4: FAQs about Forgotten Keychain Password

Is it possible to retrieve the forgotten Keychain password?

In depends. Go to the login screen and keep entering a password at least 3 times, if there is a message saying that you can reset your password using Apple ID. You need to restart after the process is done and log in with your new password.

What is the best alternative to retrieve a forgotten Keychain password?

If you have multiple Apple devices using the same iCloud account, you can also transfer the Keychain password from iPhone to Mac, or vice versa. You can either AirDrop the Keychain password or use the Keychain password recovery to get it on your MacBook.

How to reset the Keychain password for single-user mode?

If you have one administrator of your MacBook, you can use the command line to reset the Keychain password. Restart the Mac and hold on Command + S to enter the single-user mode. To delete the forgotten keychain password on Mac, you can enter the following codec.
rm /Users/shortname/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Conclusion

When you need to reset the forgotten keychain password, here is the ultimate guide you should follow. It provides solutions for single-user mode, multiple administrator accounts, Keychain First Aid, and even Apple ID to fix the related problems. If you lose some important files when you retrieve the forgotten keychain password on Mac, Aiseesoft Data Recovery for Mac should be the ultimate choice you should follow.

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