Mac OS X 10.4.3 Special Report: Keychain problems -- passwords not recognized, etc. -- how to fix

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 8:20 a.m. PT

3 min read

Several users have noted problems with the Keychain after installing Mac OS X 10.4.3. One reader writes:

"Installed the update on 3 computers. Repaired permissions before and after update. On all 3 machines (2 G4s, 1 G5) the keychain was damaged and I had to run keychain repair (didn't know there was such a thing) to fix the corrupted keychain file(s). The corruption varied from machine. Two (the G4s) had duplicate/multiple system keychains which resulted in the system rejected the normal and correct system password on the first reboot. The G5 had a corruption that was reported as 'unmapped ports.'"

MacFixIt reader Dag adds:

"I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.3 last week on my Powerbook G4 12" and everything so far seems to work. Today I restarted for the first time (after the initial reboot) and up comes the question about a keychain password as it always does after a fresh start of the system.

"This time however it did not accept my password and after three tries it told me that my retrycount was exceeded and that I should try again later. I have never changed that password and the third time I copied the password from a plain text field so I know it was correctly entered. However I don't know if this is caused by the upgrade to 10.4.3 or for any other reason. But I like to report it to see if any others have experienced the same."

In most cases, these issues can be corrected with the use of the Keychain Access application, located in Applications/Utilities. Under the "Keychain Access" menu select "Keychain First Aid" then verify and repair if necessary.

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