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Is the Keychain Access Menubar Item missing for anyone else?

The in-built Help app still claims setting the Keychain Access Menubar Item is possible through Keychain Access > Preferences > General. I no longer have a General pane in Keychain Access > Preferences and, thus, no way to choose to set the Keychain Access Menubar Item.

Do other people using 10.13 still have this option?

enter image description here

UPDATE:

I'm glad you've found ways to lock your screens, but all of the initial responses were weirdly answering a question that wasn't asked. I rarely used the Keychain Access Menubar Item for the Lock Screen feature; my screen is set to lock after a short period of inactivity. I used the Keychain Access Menubar Item to access my keychain data and to quickly and easily create UserID/Passcodes outside of Safari and to create Secure Notes and to grab Certs.

Please, see my Crude Solution below.

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  • Where can I find the wallpaper?
    – Sayan
    Commented Sep 28, 2017 at 10:21
  • 1
    Help and Preferences contradict each other. So has to be a bug (or incorrect help). Either way needs too be reported to Apple. I am running a beta (10.13.1) so have reported it via Feedback Assistant.
    – Gilby
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 22:10
  • @Sayan here: dropcanvas.com/ozpfb/1
    – Kerlix
    Commented Oct 7, 2017 at 0:43
  • May I suggest if you have an answer, however "crude", that you give it as an answer below so that it may be rated and referenced separately?
    – Jason R. Coombs
    Commented Oct 26, 2017 at 17:04
  • I’m about to try to do the same thing (since to my dismay it has not re-appeared yesterday’s 10.13.1 update so I’m no longer hoping it was a bug due for correction). Questions: - Did this require disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection)? - Did it persist across the update from 10.13.0 to 10.13.1?
    – James Junghanns
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 9:03

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
60

"Lock Screen" is now available via the Apple menu.

Lock Screen in Apple menu

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  • 1
    I was wondering what happened to the Lock Screen option via Keychain Access. I forgot that they added this feature to High Sierra!
    – Andy
    Commented Oct 1, 2017 at 1:25
  • 2
    Thank you very much. I was like: "where the heck did that icon / preference entry" go. And now there is even a keyboard shortcut that works on my external non-mac layout keyboard!
    – GhostCat
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 10:36
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    Minor inconvenience but I'm happy they've moved it here, I always felt it didn't really belong in "Keychain Access".
    – Aditya M P
    Commented Nov 12, 2017 at 18:09
  • 2
    Has nothing to do with locking the screen and everything to do with accessing all parts of the keychain as part of normal workflow.
    – snakehiss
    Commented May 31, 2018 at 17:44
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I cannot find it either. This used to be my preferred way to lock my computer. There is a keyboard shortcut to put my Mac to Sleep, but sleeping would drop my work connections so it's not ideal.

Windows still has Windows-L to quickly lock, and I'm pretty incredulous that Mac does not have anything similar...

Update: I know this is not your specific question, but since a lot of people relied on that icon for the locking functionality I'm going to post this here anyway, perhaps it will help someone else:

High Sierra now finally has a screen lock shortcut!

^ ctrl + ⌘ cmd + Q

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9

Crude Solution

You must disable SIP for this to work.

I went into a Time Machine backup and found the Keychain menu: Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access {Show Package Contents} > Contents > Resources > Keychain.menu or /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access.app/Contents/Resources/Keychain.menu.

enter image description here

I copied this menu into the same place in the 10.13 Keychain Access app and double clicked the copy to make it appear in the Menubar.

And it works, without issue. For now.

UPDATE:

The modification persisted through the first High Sierra Supplemental Update. But it did not persist through the 2nd & 3rd updates, which were to specifically disable a root login bug & fix sharing permissions. Hopefully, the next point update will include restoration of an intentional Keychain Access Menubar Item, to allow easy access to Keychain Access.

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5

Another way to accomplish this is to copy the keychain menulette from an older version of the keychain access bundle. Version 9 from Sierra works great.

Put the file in the following folder and double click it

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Keychain.menu

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  • I'm having trouble writing to that folder, or even granting my user (an admin user) write access to that folder. Is there something extra you did to copy the file there?
    – newenglander
    Commented Mar 10, 2018 at 10:42
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I think addition of Lock Screen option in the menu bar has been removed from High Sierra 10.13.1 version.

But now you can find it right under the apple menu.

Also you can now use a keyboard shortcut to lock your screen i.e. Control⌘ CommandQ.

Important note: After this update you might also find that touch id is not working. Restart your mac and everything works fine!

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2

Another way is to add an automator app to the Scripts menu. The automator script is simply "Launch Application KeychainAccess.app". After creating the app, don't forget to add it to the Scripts folder in your home Library.

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Thanks for asking the question. I used this padlock/keychain menubar access also to quickly get to forgotten passwords etc AND LOCK my screen. Of course High Sierra has removed it. GOOD NEWS> click SIRI button and say "Open Keychain" it brings you right there. I couldn't figure out how to add the padlock. glad we have siri

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You can also set a Hot Corner, which was my solution.

System Preferences ➔ Desktop & Screen Saver ➔ Screen Saver ➔ Hot Corners
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1
  • Your solution to getting the menu item back?
    – ness-EE
    Commented Mar 24, 2018 at 8:11
-4

Or, you could just say " Siri - put my macbook to sleep"

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  • Doesn't this sleep the Mac rather than just locking the screen? Also doesn't solve the issue of the other items missing which were in the menu bar item.
    – grg ♦
    Commented Apr 13, 2018 at 12:12

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