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I've seen people refer to iCloud Passwords as 'Keychain' but I am unsure if it's the same as what we see when you open 'Keychain Access' on macOS.

Years back I ran into an issue where my keychain was 'out of sync' on macOS as described at If the Mac doesn't stop asking you for the keychain password and ultimately the solution to this was to completely reset my keychain and start over.

While it was annoying I didn't actually store my accounts in there so it wasn't the end of the world.

I'm interested in potentially using iCloud Passwords now that they've added Chromium support on macOS 14 - but - I am concerned that if I run into that situation again that resetting my 'Keychain Access' in macOS would also completely erase my iCloud Passwords.

Bottom line my question is if I had to reset my Keychain Access again in macOS would it also wipe out my saved iCloud Passwords - or - are they technically two separate services?

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    Does this answer your question? What is the difference between Password and Keychain?
    – Thinkr
    Commented Nov 23, 2023 at 16:58
  • Ish. I’m still unclear if resetting your keychain on macOS would mean losing all your iCloud passwords on all devices. Seeing as I’ve had to do that before it gives me pause.
    – fyrekcaz
    Commented Nov 23, 2023 at 18:22
  • What do you mean by resetting Keychain? How do you do it exactly?
    – Alper
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 21:28
  • If you follow the Delete a keychain in Keychain Access on Mac instructions it will delete what you have and automatically create a new one, essentially resetting it. This is what Apple had me do.
    – fyrekcaz
    Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 22:23

1 Answer 1

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The article you linked suggested modifying the login keychain. If this was the keychain you deleted when you were previously experiencing your issues, this is a separate keychain from your iCloud keychain—the one where most account passwords (such as those used for autofilling in Safari) are typically stored. Deleting the login keychain won't affect the iCloud keychain, and therefore won't affect any passwords stored in the login keychain. You will lose any passwords stored in the login keychain, but these just local items such as Wi-Fi passwords, network filesharing passwords, and temporary authentication tokens for desktop applications.

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