It’s that sinking feeling. You’ve just changed your Mac login password, but suddenly a persistent, annoying little box keeps popping up asking for your "login" keychain password. You type in your new password. Rejected. You try the old one. Nothing. You’re essentially locked out of your own saved credentials, and it's because macOS keeps your login password and your keychain password in two separate, though usually synced, boxes.
When you mac reset keychain password after a forgot-it moment or a forced administrative change, you’re basically telling the system that the bridge between your user account and your encrypted vault is broken. It happens more often than you'd think, especially in corporate environments where IT departments push password updates via MDM (Mobile Device Management) software like Jamf or Kandji.
Honestly, the keychain is a bit of a relic from an older era of Apple’s OS, and while it’s mostly invisible, it becomes a massive headache the second things go out of sync.
The Brutal Reality of Keychain Encryption
Apple uses a security architecture where your login password acts as the key to decrypt your login keychain. If you change your user password while logged into your account, macOS usually updates the keychain password automatically. But if an admin resets your password, or if you reset it using your Apple ID from the boot screen, the keychain stays locked with the old password.
Why? Because Apple doesn't know your old password.
If they just let any new password unlock the old keychain, the encryption would be worthless. If someone stole your laptop and forced a password reset, they’d have all your banking logins, Wi-Fi passwords, and private certificates. So, the system protects your data by playing dumb. It says, "I see you're logged in now, but I still don't trust you with the old secrets."
When You Can Still Save Your Data
If you happen to remember your old password—even if you’re already using a new one to log into the Mac—you’re in luck. You can manually sync them. You’ll want to open Keychain Access (use Cmd+Space and type it in). Once you're there, right-click on the "login" keychain on the left sidebar. There’s an option to "Change Password for Keychain 'login'."
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Type the old one as the "Current Password" and your new Mac login password as the "New Password." Boom. Fixed. Everything stays intact.
The Nuclear Option: Starting Fresh
Most people reading this probably don't remember that old password. That's why you're here. If that's the case, you have to let go. You can't recover the old passwords inside that specific "login" keychain without the original key. You have to create a new one.
To perform a mac reset keychain password procedure that clears the errors, you’ll stay in that Keychain Access app. Go to the menu bar at the top, hit "Settings" (or "Preferences" on older macOS versions), and look for a button that says "Reset Default Keychains."
This is the "nuclear" button. It doesn't delete your old passwords—it actually archives them into a separate file and creates a brand-new, empty login keychain that matches your current password. It stops the pop-ups immediately. But yeah, you’ll have to re-enter your Wi-Fi passwords and log back into your email accounts once.
Dealing with the "Local Items" or "iCloud" Keychain
Modern macOS versions have made this even more confusing by introducing the "Local Items" or "iCloud Keychain" folders. If you use iCloud Keychain, most of your really important stuff—like Safari passwords and credit card info—is actually synced to Apple’s servers.
Resetting your local login keychain won't kill your iCloud passwords.
That’s a huge relief for most. Once you reset the local keychain and sign back into iCloud in System Settings, your Mac will start pulling those passwords back down from the cloud. The only things you really lose are local-only items, like certain app-specific tokens or internal network share credentials.
Why the Pop-ups Won't Go Away
Sometimes, even after you think you've fixed it, the Mac keeps nagging you. This usually happens because a specific process—like accountsd or addressbooksourceupdater—is still trying to talk to the old, locked keychain file.
If the "Reset Default Keychains" button didn't work, you might have to go into the Library folder. It’s hidden by default. In Finder, hold the Option key and click "Go" in the menu bar, then select "Library." Navigate to the "Keychains" folder. You'll see a bunch of folders with long strings of numbers and letters (UUIDs).
If you're feeling brave and have a backup, moving these folders to the Trash and restarting the Mac forces the system to rebuild the entire keychain structure from scratch. It’s messy, but it’s the definitive way to stop the "mac reset keychain password" loop when the GUI tools fail.
The Role of FileVault in This Mess
If you have FileVault turned on (which you should), your login password is also the disk decryption key. When you change your password, macOS has to update the "pre-boot" disk information. If this process glitches, you might find yourself in a situation where the Mac accepts your new password to turn on the computer, but then asks for the old password once the desktop loads.
This is a classic "split-brain" scenario.
In these cases, the best move is often to log out, and at the login screen, see if it asks you to "Reset password using Apple ID." Even if you know your password, going through this specific recovery flow can sometimes re-align the FileVault key with the Keychain key.
Expert Tips for Developers and Power Users
If you spend a lot of time in Terminal, you know that security is the command-line tool for keychain management. You can actually reset things via command line if the UI is hanging.
security default-keychain -s login.keychain
This sets the default, but if you want to delete the login keychain entirely via script:
security delete-keychain login.keychain
Use that with extreme caution. It’s the digital equivalent of a sledgehammer. For developers, this often happens after a macOS update where the codesign utility can no longer access your private keys. Usually, just unlocking the keychain manually in the UI fixes the "User interaction is not allowed" error in Xcode.
A Note on Third-Party Password Managers
Honestly? This is why many Mac experts move their most sensitive data to 1Password or Bitwarden.
While the macOS Keychain is great and deeply integrated, it’s tied so tightly to your system user account that a simple password change can break your workflow. Third-party managers are agnostic. They don't care if you changed your Mac login password because they use their own independent Master Password. It adds a layer of redundancy that saves you from the "keychain reset" nightmare.
Moving Forward Without the Pop-ups
If you've followed the steps to reset your default keychain, your Mac should be quiet now. The constant requests for "login" keychain should have vanished.
To keep it this way:
- Always change passwords through System Settings. Avoid using third-party tools to force a password change unless you’re an admin who knows the consequences.
- Keep iCloud Keychain ON. It acts as a safety net. If your local keychain gets corrupted (which happens), the cloud has your back.
- Run First Aid. If you’re on an older version of macOS (pre-Catalina), Keychain Access had a "Keychain First Aid" tool. On newer versions, the system is supposed to self-repair, but a simple reboot after a password change is still the best medicine.
If you’re still seeing prompts for "Local Items," it’s likely an iCloud sync issue. Toggle "Passwords & Keychain" off in your iCloud settings, wait a minute, and toggle it back on. This refreshes the local cache without you having to dig through the Library folder again.
Actionable Next Steps
- Check your backup status. Before deleting anything in the ~/Library/Keychains folder, ensure your Time Machine backup is current.
- Verify iCloud Keychain. Go to System Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud and make sure "Passwords & Keychain" is checked so you don't lose web credentials.
- Perform the Reset. If the pop-ups are happening every few seconds, open Keychain Access and use the "Reset Default Keychains" option immediately to restore sanity to your workspace.
- Document the change. If you’re in a workspace, let your IT team know you had to reset your keychain so they can help re-verify any enterprise certificates or VPN profiles that might have been lost in the process.