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October 29, 2009 11:15 AM PDT
MobileMe: Syncing keychains asks for a password to a different computer
In the case that you are prompted for a keychain password to a machine you no longer have access to or have forgotten the password for, follow these steps:
- You will be resetting the master keychain password file used during syncing, so users should backup their data on all machines before continuing.
- To reset the master keychain password file, navigate to the Finder menu bar > Go > Utilities and Open Terminal.
- In the Terminal window, choose the
Mac OS you are running and enter the appropriate command (copy/paste to be sure you get the precise code):
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityFoundation.framework/Versions/A/kcSync.app/Contents/MacOS/kcSync -resetMac OS X 10.5 or earlier
/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityFoundation.framework/Versions/A/Resources/kcSync.app/Contents/MacOS/kcSync -reset - Press Return. A message will appear in Terminal after the code executes similar to: "Removing /Library/Keychains/.syncinfo/ login.keychain.syncinfo.plist was successful."
- Quit Terminal and sync with MobileMe. (System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync).
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In the application Keychain Access, open Preferences from the Keychain Access menu and click "Reset keychain syncing".
This does exactly the same thing as the Terminal commands in 10.5 and 10.6 listed above, but is far less arcane.
Also, there is an issue in some cases where the obsolete keychain from the long-discarded computer will keep showing up upon syncing with MobileMe after having upgraded to 10.6.
In this case, the above command (and its graphical equivalent from the Keychain Access prefs) will result in a crash of the kcSync application, and simply fail to work.
The fix necessarily involves a machine running 10.5:
First, make a backup of ALL relevant data ever to be synced through MobileMe (just in case).
Next, all MobileMe keychain syncing must be turned off and the offending keychain deleted from all machines.
Then, keychain syncing must be reset FROM THE MACHINE RUNNING 10.5 using the Terminal command listed above:
/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityFoundation.framework/Versions/A/Resources/kcSync.app/Contents/MacOS/kcSync -reset
Then keychain syncing must be turned back on and keychains should be re-synced from that 10.5 machine, opting to replace data on MobileMe with that from the computer.
Syncing may be switched on on all other machines now. The offending obsolete keychain should not reappear.