How can I repair a keychain in Mojave?

Question

Whenever I encounter a password field in Safari which it wants to auto-fill using my keychain, it freezes up for a few minutes and shows nothing but the beach ball. I presume it has to do with a corrupted keychain.

In previous versions of macOS, there was the option to repair a keychain. In Mojave, there is no such thing. When I "reset my default keychains", it fixes the problem and everything works as usual. However I lose all my passwords and notes.

What I've tried that didn't work:

• Run first aid from the Disk Manager
• Restored my keychain (contents of ~/Library/Keychains) from a Time Machine backup
• Moved everything but login.keychain to the trash

I know that you could theoretically create a new keychain and copy items from the original keychain, but it keeps prompting for a password for each item which would not be feasible with the amount of items I have stored.

Answer 1

The repair tool was removed over security concerns where it could be use to export your keychain without your permissions. what we're left with are guidances you'll find throughout various blog articles explaining some specific problems with workarounds to "fix" specific issues related to the keychain.

• How to Resolve Mac OS X Keychain Problems
• 5 Common Keychain Problems on Mac and How to Fix Them
• Keychain Access Mojave

Most of these solutions involve deleting specific offending keys or toggling "Show Summary" or other aspects of a problematic key.

Answer 2

A corrupt Keychain can prevent multiple services from loggin in, including iCloud. Here is a way to figure out if your Keychain is the cause of not being able to login to iCloud.

1. Open your Console app (under Utilities)
2. In the Search field, type "Login"
3. Press the Clear button.
4. Try to login to your iCloud.
5. Note the error messages. They may look something like this"

Error Domain=com.apple.accounts Code=13 UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=, NSUnderlyingError=0x7f*******c10 {Error Domain=com.apple.accounts.keychain Code=-25295}}}}

Break down the error codes:

Error Domain=com.apple.accounts Code=13

This code can be linked to Keychain errors with a simple Google search

Error Domain=com.apple.accounts.keychain Code=-25295

This error code (and many others) can be nterpreted at this link:

           https://krypted.com/lists/comprehensive-list-of-mac-os-x-error-codes/

In this case, 25295 is interpreted by pressing Command F and searcing "25295". The search locates the following code:

Keychain Manager error codes

errKCInvalidKeychain = -25295

All indications are that the Keychain is corrupt, blocking services from logging in. In fact, by searching your own Apple ID in the keychain to locate login keys, you might try deleting Public keys. In doing so, MacOS will fail to delete any key that is corrupt.

SOLUTION:

The solution is at this link: How to back up your iCloud Keychain

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/09/05/how-to-back-up-your-icloud-keychain/

If you backup your MacOS device, your Keychain is also backed up. The article describes how to ensure your iCloud keychain items are also included in any local backup, and in doing so, it also describes how to restore your Keychain. Your Keychain is located in a file within your Library at ~/Library/Keychains. In finder, you need to select GO at the top menu (there's a way to unhide the "Go" tab... I don't remember offhand, but it is easy to find). Library is under the GO tab. This being said, this folder is also backed up to Time Machine or any duplicate of your MacOS device. Follow the instructions in the link to restore the ~/Library/Keychains folder to your MacOS device. I restarted my MacBook Pro, at this point, and for the first time in a couple of weeks, was able to login to all services. Problem solved!