How do I reset my keyring password?

Owned by Marc Miller
Last updated: May 08, 2018
2 min read

When you change or reset your password, a host of other things are changed at the same time. If you have a Unix/Linux based operating system such as Fedora, Centos, Ubuntu, or even Mac OS X, one of these things that can change is your keyring, a file that contains saved passwords to sites and applications. If you do not change or reset your password cleanly, a disconnect can occur between your current password to the computer and the password to the keyring file.

Mac:

After you or your Mac administrator resets the password of your macOS user account, your Mac might ask you to update your keychain password or enter the password of your login keychain. It might also tell you that the system was unable to unlock your login keychain. That's because your login keychain is still using your old password.

If you know your old password

If you know your old password, use that password to update your existing login keychain:

  1. Open the Keychain Access App, which is in the the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  2. From the list of keychains on the left side of the window, select "login." 
  3. From the Edit menu in the menu bar, choose “Change Password for Keychain 'login.'”
  4. Enter the old password of your user account in the Current Password field. This is the password you were using before the password was reset.
  5. Enter the new password of your user account in the New Password field. This is the password you're now using to log in to your Mac. Enter the same password in the Verify field.
  6. Click OK when done, then quit Keychain Access.
  7. Restart your computer.

If you don't know your old password

If you don't know your old password, the solution is to create a new login keychain

  1. Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.
  2. From the Keychain Access menu, choose Preferences.
  3. Click General, then click Reset My Default Keychain.
  4. Authenticate with your account login password.
  5. After you enter your new password, Keychain Access creates an empty login keychain with no password. Click OK to confirm.
    1. If you don't see a Reset My Default keychain button, close the preferences window
    2. Select the “login” keychain from the left side of the Keychain Access window.
    3. Press the Delete key,
    4. Then click Delete References.
  6. Quit Keychain Access.
  7. Restart your computer.

Centos:

  1. Open a terminal and type in: seahorse
  2. This will open a GUI window with passwords and keys
  3. You can then right click each password you set and delete the password if it was forgotten.
  4. After deleting the desired passwords, restart the computer

or

  1. Open a terminal

  2. run the following commands

    $ cp ~/.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring ~/Desktop/ # Create backup of your keyring
$ rm ~/.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring
  3. restart the computer



The following links provide more information and alternative solutions:

askubuntu.com/questions/32164/what-does-a-keyring-do

http://superuser.com/questions/381428/why-am-i-always-asked-to-unlock-my-login-keyring-at-startup

https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/38840/how-can-i-change-the-keyring-password/