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I've tried everything with keychain, and I can't get it to just leave me alone. It pops up and says it can't find a keychain to store something, giving me choices like "cancel" or "reset to defaults".

If I try "cancel", the same dialogue box pops up immediately. If I try "reset to defaults" it asks for my login password. I enter it, it tells me that it wants to use the "Local Items" keychain, asking for a password.

At this point I can enter a password (which it tells me is wrong) or click cancel which starts the loop over again.

Is there a way to get keychain to just leave me alone, always? Chrome does fine with my passwords, I don't think I need Apple to be involved in this at all.

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  • The keychain is used for more than internet passwords. Some of the answers here might help: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/167689/…
    – dwightk
    Apr 8, 2015 at 13:35
  • What events|sites|activities are causing the problem? Some responses may be just a one-time thing, but without more detail about those things that are popping up, there's not much anybody can do to help. Yes, its frustrating.
    – IconDaemon
    Apr 8, 2015 at 13:35
  • @IconDaemon I have these issues with various applications, Chrome, Outlook, Safari, and others. I thought if there was a button for "drive a stake through the heart of keychain" I would like to know where it is.
    – Eric Wilson
    Apr 8, 2015 at 15:01
  • Unfortunately, the Keychain is an integral part of OS X security and can't just be turned off. What are the specific requests that need to be fulfilled? Details matter!
    – IconDaemon
    Apr 8, 2015 at 18:38

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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This problem was with the "local items keychain". I found the following here and it worked for me:

Follow these steps to prevent prompts to unlock the Local Items keychain.

  1. In Finder Select Go > Go to folder (⇧⌘G)
  2. In the window that appears, type the following: ~/Library/Keychains/
  3. Click OK.
  4. Look for a folder with a name similar to this "A8F5E7B8-CEC1-4479-A7DF-F23CB076C8B8". Note: Each folder has a unique number.
  5. Move this folder to the Trash.
  6. Immediately choose Apple Menu () > Restart… to restart your Mac.

After restarting the computer, a new folder is created in the Keychains folder with a name similar to "4B29A0BB-599D-47FC-A2D1-42B5592B130B". There is no need to repeat the steps in this article, or to delete this folder. The new folder is expected and corrects the symptom described in this article.

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  • Did not work for me. It creates a new hex name folder on reboot, but still continues to generate the obnoxious popups that refuse to accept my password. :-(
    – Brian Knoblauch
    Jul 27, 2016 at 12:11
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Keychain issues can be vexing. One easy to try step is to make a new user account and verify that the system and new user are correct.

At that point you’ll know if you need a full backup and erase install if the systematic approach of pruning all the broken stored entries and links fails you or exhausts you patience.

If the new account works, the process to fix the broken user account is also much easier. Focus on all the user keychains and/or just migrate that one user from a backup when the time needdd to restore is less than the time you spent to fix the bad data on user keychains.

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