What is Keychain Access on Mac?

INTERNAL USE ONLY

Overview

Keychain Access is a macOS app that stores your passwords and account information and reduces the number of passwords you have to remember and manage.

When you access a website, email account, network server, or another password-protected item, you may be given the option to remember or save the password. If you choose to save the password, it’s saved in your keychain so you don’t have to remember or type your password every time.

Because Keychain Access securely stores and retrieves your usernames, passwords, and other information, you can make individual passwords more complex and difficult to break. This can make your individual accounts more secure.

Keychain Access works in collaboration with iCloud keychain, which lets you share keychains with your other devices.

Secure notes

You can use Secure Notes in Keychain Access to securely store confidential information. This information can be completely unrelated to your computer, such as combinations for locks, personal identification numbers (PINs) for a bank account, credit card numbers, confidential notes, cryptographic keys, and any other information that you want to keep private.

Certificates

You can also use Keychain Access to manage certificates, which are issued by trusted organizations to validate websites, digital documents, and other web-based materials.

Print Article

Related Articles (2)

macOS user account might not match the password of your login keychain.
If Keychain First Aid finds an issue that it can't repair, or if you don't know your keychain password, you might need to reset the keychain.