Apple Releases Keychain First Aid To Fix Several Keychain Bugs

Y ou like Jaguaris updated Mail app but find that, for some reason, you are constantly being asked to unlock it or enter your e-mail password? Perhaps you notice that Keychain is prompting you for access to your instant messaging app a bit too often? You understand that security is a good thing, but wonder if Apple has gone a wee bit overboard? Take heart, because you are not alone, and Apple has done something about it.

The company has released Keychain First Aid version 1.0, an application that Apple says will cure at least some of your keychain peculiarities. Version 1.0 remedies a slew of oddities, as noted in the Keychain First Aid ReadMe file:

You may use Keychain First Aid to resolve issues in which:

  • A useris .Mac password is not retained in Internet preference pane, as described in technical document 107097, "Mac OS X 10.2: Wonit Save .Mac Password".
  • Mail and iChat could continue to prompt users for their password after saving it in the keychain.
  • A user could be unexpectedly prompted to unlock the keychain after changing account information or Home directory location.
  • Duplicate Mail passwords could appear in the keychain, as described in technical document 106546, "Mac OS X 10.1: Re-enter Mail Password After Upgrade".
  • Multiple references to the same keychain could appear in the Keychain Access application.
  • Applications are unable to retrieve items from a keychain file located on a network volume.
  • Saved passwords could not be read if they were created or modified by certain pre-release versions of Jaguar.
  • A Keychain dialog can sometimes prompt for permission to decrypt a "(null)" item.

Note: Issues above may be rare or intermittent and may not be experienced by all users.

You can pick up Keychain First Aid at Apple Knowledge Base site.