Reset Default Keychain - macOS

It is recommended that your change your HU network password while on campus connected to ethernet (wired networking) and then immediately restart your computer to avoid issues.

Once you have changed your HU password, you will be prompted to update the keychain password on your HU issued Mac. Once you click, update the keychain password, you will be asked to enter the current keychain password, this is your previous password. If you make an incorrect selection and are continuously prompted to allow access to the keychain, please follow these instructions to update the keychain using Keychain Access:

  1. Open Keychain Access (which is located in /Applications/Utilities.)
  2. Choose Preferences from the Keychain Access menu, then click the Reset My Default Keychain button in the preferences window. 
  3. After you enter your new password, Keychain Access creates an empty login keychain with no password. Click OK to confirm. Note: If you don't see a Reset My Default keychain button, close the preferences window and select the “login” keychain from the left side of the Keychain Access window. Press the Delete key, then click Delete References.
  4. Choose Log Out from the Apple menu to return to the login screen.
  5. Log in to your account again, this will set the login keychain password to be the same as your user account password

If the above steps to reset the keychain do not work or you are seeing a specific error message mentioning the "Local Items" keychain, you will need to delete the contents of  /Users/username/Library/Keychains 

  1.  Open Finder
  2. Click Go at the top of the screen
  3. Hold the Option key and select Library from the list
  4. Open the Keychains folder and delete all items inside ( Do NOT delete the Keychains folder itself)
  5. Restart

Reference: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860
Creation date: 9/12/2018 1:43 PM      Updated: 7/13/2020 7:52 AM
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