Help! I just lost all my passwords. What do I do now?
If your saved passwords aren’t working, the culprit is most likely in your Keychain. Most of the time, your Keychain hums along in the background, managing passwords for you—by default, your Keychain is unlocked with your login password. But every now and then, Keychain can come down with a bug that can put you out of commission for a bit.
Curing Keychain’s ills is pretty simple. Hidden in Applications > Utilities is Keychain Access, an app that can help you diagnose problems with Keychains. If yours is acting up, your first stop should be Keychain Access > Keychain First Aid. Using the Repair option can fix permissions problems that are usually the culprit.
Keychain First Aid is sort of like Disk Utility for your Keychain.
But if your Keychain is terminal, don’t lose hope just yet. If you’ve got a backup, you can try replacing your Keychain data. As a last resort, use the Reset My Default Keychain option to set your old data aside and start a new default Keychain. (And start making backups this time, okay?)
