Today we are registered in dozens of web pages, forums, blogs, applications and services, having as a general rule different credentials to access them. Writing down passwords on paper may have been fine in another time, but today it is not only a method that guarantees little security, but it is also very tedious. That is why there is the iCloud keychain , in which we can save all the passwords of the places we access. In this article we explain how to manage keychain passwords from a Mac.
First of all, what is saved on the iCloud keychain?
In all Apple devices we find the aforementioned iCloud keychain for passwords. These passwords can be added manually, but most of the time they are uploaded to this service almost automatically. For example, when we access a website for the first time and register, the Mac (or the Apple device that is being used) will ask us if we want to save the password. If we say yes, it will go directly to the iCloud keychain. The same happens when we log in while already registered or change a password.
It should be said that many times it is not even necessary to access the keychain, since the Mac remembers the services for which it has a password and when accessing them it suggests entering the saved password with just one click. It is also important to know that password storage is completely secure and private , accessible only through your Apple ID and password. The company cannot under any circumstances access these credentials due to its privacy regulations, nor can anyone else access them without your permission even though they are stored in the cloud.
Access to keychains from your Mac
In devices like iPhone and iPad it is not an application as such, but we can find it within the settings. In macOS it is not really a program, but it can be accessed directly. Literally this tool is called like this (“Access to keychains”) and we can find it just by using the Mac search engine, although we recommend creating an access to it in the dock to be able to open it whenever we need it.
As soon as we open this tool, we find all the keychains on the left side (login, iCloud, system and system root). We can also find the keys and passwords ordered by category. In all cases, we find a search engine that will be extremely useful to locate a password.
Just by typing the name of the service, application or website for which we want to see the password, it will appear in the list, then we just have to click and a new window will appear in which we can see the password. Of course, it will be protected and we must mark “show password” and then enter the Mac password to make it visible. We can copy this key to paste it on a website or, if it is the case, change the password manually if we had changed it in the service or application but not in the keychain.
From Safari you can also see passwords
Another way to view the iCloud Keychain is from the native macOS browser. In fact it could be the fastest method when we are browsing the internet and we need to know a password quickly for a login.
To access the keychain from Safari you just have to go to the upper toolbar, go to the Safari menu and click on ” Preferences “. An advantage will now open with certain settings and you will have to go to the ” Passwords ” tab. Now you just have to enter the Mac password or, if we have an Apple Watch, press the button twice so that the system detects that we are the ones who want to access the keychain.
