1. Jan 06, 2012  Question: Q: Mac OS X wants to use the system keychain When I am logging in to my MacBook Air I get promted with the following message, its the same when waking up from sleep or screensaver. It is after I have entered my password and I have tried keychain repair with no success.
2. Jun 07, 2006  When I open Keychain Access now, the only one there is for my Airport base station, which is a System keychain. When I open Mail and click Get Mail, it asks for my password every time, even though I have checked to remember the password in Keychain. My external drive was mounted at the time, so maybe its keychain was deleted, too.

The Mac OS X keychain is a password management system designed to allow the storing and accessing of user passwords for various types of accounts and applications in a secure manner.

No matter which method you use to reset administrator password on mac, it won't automatically update the password protecting the account's login keychain. Since the keychain is still protected with the old administrator password, there would be no way to get back into it unless you could update keychain password or create new keychain.

Probably you are just prompted to do that at startup after Mac admin password reset, such as on Yosemite, or constantly asked to enter the keychain password after Mac login. Regardless of which happens, resetting keychain password would help you access Keychain again.

Method 1: Reset Keychain login password in Keychain Access

After you log into Mac with new administrator password, follow the steps below.

1. Open Keychain Access from Finder> Applications Utilities, and choose Keychain AccessPreferences from top menu.

2. In newer versions of Mac OS X, such as on Yosemite, you will see a button Reset My Default Keychain under the General pane.

Mac Keychain Passwords

3. Click it and enter the new login password in Password field to create new keychain.

Note: If you have no such button, choose EditKeychain List (Command + Option + L), select the login keychain, and click the minus button to delete it.

4. Quit Keychain Access and restart Mac. A new login keychain will recollecting and storing the passwords for Wi-Fi networks, email accounts, Web sites, and other logins as they occur.

Method 2: Reset Keychain password with command line in single user mode

If you cannot work with Keychain Access because of something like Messages Agent constantly asking for the forgotten login keychain password, you can use command line to reset Keychain password in single user mode.

1. Restart Mac and hold on Command + S to enter single user mode.

2. After you are prompted to enter a command-line after numerous lines of status messages, type this command to mount the root Mac OS X drive as writable.

mount -uw /

3. Delete that account's login keychain.

rm /Users/shortname/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Note: If you are not sure the shortname, please confirm it with command 'ls /Users' at first.

4. Reboot Mac by command 'reboot'.

After Mac starts, you should have created a new keychain on Mac.

Update keychain password if you still remember the old one:

1. Click Update Keychain Password and enter the old password at startup, or continue login and enter old password when you are asked.

2. Open Keychain Access and right click on login, and choose the option Change Password for Keychain 'Login' from pop-up menu.

3. Enter the old password in 'Current Password' field and new password in 'New Password' box. Verify it and click OK to successfully change keychain password.

Mac Os X Keychain Access

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