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I have figured out how to put a password into my Keychain, and I went to my web account, to change the password, so it is the same in both places. Now, how do I get the two to coordinate, so I don't have to put the password into the web account login screen? That's the way it's suppose to work, right?

After making the password the same in both locations, and making sure the account user name was on the password listing for Keychain, I logged out of the web account, and tried logging back in, by just putting the user name, and hitting enter. I got red letters telling me the user name or password were incorrect. What am I doing wrong?

I have spent quite a bit of time trying to find information on how to use Keychain. The information on the "Help" topics for Keychain is sketchy at best. Is there some place where I can find complete information on how to use Keychain?

I have looked at the YouTube videos, and they don't give the whole story either. Just the steps to do specific tasks, and don't really give anymore than what is in the Help topics on Keychain.

One more thing, I can't find an answer to. When I first logged into my Mac after my hard drive crashed and I had to get a new hard drive, I used a simple password (my bad). The password box, for checking what a password is, and to open my Mac user account (is that the system password?), requires that simple password. Now that I am trying to add an extra level of security to my Mac, I want to use a new, more complex password, but can't figure out how to change it. Can someone direct me to some instructions for how to do that? Thanks.

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I have figured out how to put a password into my Keychain, and I went to my web account, to change the password, so it is the same in both places. Now, how do I get the two to coordinate, so I don't have to put the password into the web account login screen? That's the way it's suppose to work, right?

Well, not quite. Applications can store logins in your Keychain for you. So, for example, let's log into our Apple ID. Make sure that under Safari Preferences, AutoFill is enabled for user names and passwords.

You will then be asked whether to save these credentials. Of course we choose Yes.

After that, open up your Keychain. You will find this login again, as a web form password. You can actually see the password you entered when you click the Show password checkbox.

Next time you open up the Apple ID login page in Safari, your username and password will be filled automatically for you. If you want to change your password, you can do it on the website, and your Keychain will track these changes. You can also manually change the password that is stored in the Keychain if you need, but you should never manually create Keychain entries, since these cannot be synced with your browser.

So basically, the way you "synchronize" is: Enter your passwords once in Safari, let the Keychain save them for you. This works with most browsers, e.g. Google Chrome does the same. I'm not sure about Firefox and others, as I haven't used them — but they should use the Keychain if they want to properly integrate with the system.


I want to use a new, more complex password, but can't figure out how to change it. Can someone direct me to some instructions for how to do that?

Click the button in your menu bar, and open System Preferences. Click Accounts and select your user account on the left. Here, click the Change Password… button.

See also: Mac OS X: Changing or resetting an account password

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