“accountsd wants to use the login keychain”: what it means and how to stop it

What accountsd is

accountsd is the macOS background process that manages the accounts in System Settings › Internet Accounts and your Apple Account: mail, calendar and contacts accounts from iCloud, Google, Microsoft and others. It lives inside macOS's own Accounts framework and starts by itself. To sign those accounts in, it needs their passwords and tokens, which macOS keeps in your login keychain.

Why it keeps asking for the keychain password

Your login keychain is locked with a password, normally the same one you log in to your Mac with, and macOS unlocks it for you at login. The prompt appears when the two no longer match, so the keychain stays locked:

• You changed your Mac password, and the keychain kept the old one. This happens most often when the password was reset rather than changed, for example from Recovery, with an Apple Account, or by an administrator.
• You moved to a new Mac with Migration Assistant or restored from a backup, and the keychain came across with another password.
• Your Mac is managed by a workplace whose directory changed your password.

Cancelling doesn't help, because accountsd tries again the next time an account syncs. Other apps, such as Mail, Safari or a Wi-Fi menu, may ask for the same keychain for the same reason.

Fix 1: enter your previous password

Type the password you used before the last change into the prompt and click OK. If it is accepted, the prompt goes away for now. Then make the keychain use your current password, so it unlocks by itself at login:

1. Open Keychain Access with Spotlight (⌘ Space, then type “Keychain Access”). Since macOS 15 Sequoia it is no longer in the Utilities folder, but Spotlight still finds it.
2. Select login under Default Keychains in the sidebar.
3. Choose Edit › Change Password for Keychain “login”. Enter the old password as the current one, and your Mac login password as the new one.
4. Restart. The prompt shouldn't come back.

Fix 2: start a new login keychain

If you don't remember the old password, the keychain can't be unlocked, and the way out is a new, empty one. Passwords that sync through iCloud Keychain come back from iCloud; passwords saved only on this Mac, such as some app sign-ins and Wi-Fi networks, are lost, and those apps ask you to sign in again.

1. In the Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Keychains.
2. Rename login.keychain-db to something like login-old.keychain-db. Leave the other files and folders alone.
3. Restart your Mac. macOS creates a new login keychain with your current password when you log in.
4. Sign in to your accounts again when apps ask. Keep the old file for a while: if you remember its password later, you can add it in Keychain Access with File › Add Keychain and copy items out of it.

Is the accountsd prompt a scam?

The real prompt is a macOS window, not a web page, and it asks for the keychain password, not your Apple Account password or a card number. A browser window or pop-up that copies it is phishing: close the tab, and see the “Apple Security Alert” scam. If you are unsure, cancel the prompt and open Keychain Access yourself as above; that is always safe. If prompts appear from processes you don't recognise, see has my Mac been hacked?

Check your Mac's accounts and permissions with Tidy My Mac

• Privacy Access shows which apps you allowed to use your camera, microphone, screen, files and contacts, so an app asking for more than it should stands out.
• Sudo Activity lists when administrator rights were used in Terminal, by whom and for what.
• Security Settings checks FileVault, the firewall and the other protections that keep your keychain safe if the Mac is lost.