Unlocking 'Local Items' Keychain Issue in Mavericks

ByMike Moffit

For anyone who has been keeping track of my Tech Tails articles, you might start to see a pattern. If you see where I’m going with this, then you can safely assume that my latest article is — you guessed it — more insight into Keychain Access!

Perhaps one of the most widely used utilities for all users, Keychain Access is designed for your convenience, but even the most convenient apps can cause massive confusion when error messages surface.

It’s been brought to my attention that with the latest version of Mavericks (v10.9.1), some users are experiencing a repeating prompt that asks you to unlock the ‘Local Items’ keychain. If this has happened to you, don’t worry; your password is, in fact, correct. This prompt is a complete error on the part of the OS.

Why does this happen? I’m not entirely sure, but I have seen a pattern with anyone who has a problem upgrading to the latest version, or if the software’s directory becomes problematic.

The good news is that there’s a relatively simple fix for this, so please follow these steps to prevent the prompts.

  1. In Finder, select Go > Go to folder… (⇧⌘G)
  2. In the window that appears, type the following: ~/Library/Keychains/
  3. Click “OK”
  4. Look for a folder with a name similar to this: ‘A8F5E7B8-CEC1-4479-A7DF-F23CB076C8B8’ NOTE: Each folder has a unique number
  5. Move this folder to the Trash
  6. Immediately choose Apple Menu > Restart… to restart your Mac

After restarting the computer, a new folder is created in the Keychains folder with a name similar to ‘A8F5E7B8-CEC1-4479-A7DF-F23CB076C8B8.’ However, there is no need to double check and/or repeat the steps in this article, or to delete this folder. The new folder is expected, and corrects the symptom that I’ve described.

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