Keychain problems

  • Thread starter Patrick P. Zaretski
  • Start date
P

Patrick P. Zaretski

I am running Entourage V 11.3.6 on Mac OS X 10.4.10 and am having a real
problem with my keychain. My e-mail is IMAP/SMTP for aol.com, and for about
two weeks now, about two or three times per session, either sending,
receiving, or deleting e-mails, I am constantly asked to input my keychain
password to allow Entourage access. I have deleted my keychain, built a new
one, rebuilt the new one, changed account settings, etc., following what
advice I could glean from entourage.mvps.org, but it's still a problem; a
nuisance more than anything, since at least my e-mail service is still
working, but a nuisance nevertheless. Any help would be greatly
appreciated!
 
J

Jolly Roger

I am running Entourage V 11.3.6 on Mac OS X 10.4.10 and am having a real
problem with my keychain. My e-mail is IMAP/SMTP for aol.com, and for about
two weeks now, about two or three times per session, either sending,
receiving, or deleting e-mails, I am constantly asked to input my keychain
password to allow Entourage access. I have deleted my keychain, built a new
one, rebuilt the new one, changed account settings, etc., following what
advice I could glean from entourage.mvps.org, but it's still a problem; a
nuisance more than anything, since at least my e-mail service is still
working, but a nuisance nevertheless. Any help would be greatly
appreciated!
Click to expand...

Have you moved the Entourage application, or the Microsoft Office
application folder recently? Moving the application usually prompts
such a dialog box.
 
P

Patrick P. Zaretski

Neither. The initial password prompting also occurred some time after I
installed the latest Office update, so Entourage was working just fine up to
that point.
 
J

Jolly Roger

Neither. The initial password prompting also occurred some time after I
installed the latest Office update, so Entourage was working just fine up to
that point.
Click to expand...

I'm curious what exactly the dialog says, verbatim, because there are a
couple different dialog boxes you may be seeing.

The next time you get the message, if you don't mind, take a screen
shot (Command-Shift-3 or 4) of the dialog box and put the image on
http://imageshack.us where we can see it, or transcribe the dialog box
text here verbatim.
 
P

Patrick P. Zaretski

Well, not that I couldn't make the image, but I didn't want to go crazy
blocking out my personal info, so here is the message verbatim, generated
after I tried replying to an e-mail message:

Unlock keychain.

Please enter your keychain password.

Microsoft Entourage wants to use keychain "[my keychain name]."

Details

Keychain: [my keychain name]
Tool: Microsoft Entourage
 
D

Diane Ross

I am running Entourage V 11.3.6 on Mac OS X 10.4.10 and am having a real
problem with my keychain. My e-mail is IMAP/SMTP for aol.com, and for about
two weeks now, about two or three times per session, either sending,
receiving, or deleting e-mails, I am constantly asked to input my keychain
password to allow Entourage access. I have deleted my keychain, built a new
one, rebuilt the new one, changed account settings, etc., following what
advice I could glean from entourage.mvps.org, but it's still a problem; a
nuisance more than anything, since at least my e-mail service is still
working, but a nuisance nevertheless. Any help would be greatly
appreciated!
Click to expand...

You might need to download the combo updater from Apple and run it again
rather than using Software Update. Doing so overwrites potentially
problem-causing files. Several users have reported this fixed some odd
problems they were having with Entourage. Combo updaters will install on the
same version as they¹re applying‹no need to roll back or do a clean install.

Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update (PPC)
<http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx10410combo
updateppc.html>

Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update (Intel)

<http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx10410combo
updatev11intel.html>

More info on why applying the combo updater helps:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/combo.html>

Please let me know if this works.
 
J

Jolly Roger

Well, not that I couldn't make the image, but I didn't want to go crazy
blocking out my personal info, so here is the message verbatim, generated
after I tried replying to an e-mail message:

Unlock keychain.

Please enter your keychain password.

Microsoft Entourage wants to use keychain "[my keychain name]."

Details

Keychain: [my keychain name]
Tool: Microsoft Entourage
Click to expand...

Ok.

Is the keychain's name "login"?
 
P

Patrick P. Zaretski

Ok.

Is the keychain's name "login"?
Click to expand...

No, although I originally had the keychain named "login." I am downloading
the 10.4.10 combo like Diane had suggested, and I am going to try that
eventually, but any help in the meantime down whatever path you're thinking
of would be appreciated, Jolly Roger!
 
P

Patrick P. Zaretski

At least as far as I know...it asked me once, but then, I just turned the
system back on after the restart, so we'll see what it does later.
 
J

Jolly Roger

No, although I originally had the keychain named "login." I am downloading
the 10.4.10 combo like Diane had suggested, and I am going to try that
eventually, but any help in the meantime down whatever path you're thinking
of would be appreciated, Jolly Roger!
Click to expand...

If it's not named "login" then do you have another keychain named "login"?

Why would you *not* store Entourage keys in the "login" keychain?

If you run /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access, open this keychain
that is not named "login", and then choose Edit > Change Settings for
Keychain "name" from the Keychain Access menu bar, is it set to lock
the keychain after a certain amount off time?
 
D

Diane Ross

At least as far as I know...it asked me once, but then, I just turned the
system back on after the restart, so we'll see what it does later.
Click to expand...

Did you ever run Keychain FirstAid?
 
P

Patrick P. Zaretski

Roger, I think you may have hit it! The keychain was set to lock after five
minutes of inactivity, so I think that that would be the problem. I have
since turned the time limit off; I will let you know if this was the
solution as the situation arises.

Incidentally, I do have a Login keychain, but I emptied it after these
problems, to see if that was where the problem was, and my differently-named
keychain is now my default one. Is that something I should correct?
 
J

Jolly Roger

Roger, I think you may have hit it! The keychain was set to lock after five
minutes of inactivity, so I think that that would be the problem. I have
since turned the time limit off; I will let you know if this was the
solution as the situation arises.
Click to expand...

Oh good - hope so! Note that you'll still need to unlock that key
chain each time you log in, but after that it should remain unlocked -
until you log out again.
Incidentally, I do have a Login keychain, but I emptied it after these
problems, to see if that was where the problem was, and my differently-named
keychain is now my default one. Is that something I should correct?
Click to expand...

Well the benefit to having stuff in the login keychain is that it's
automatically unlocked when you log in.

There may be a way to make other keychains unlock when you log in, but
I've never needed to investigate that to see how it might be done.
 
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