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icee | 1 year ago

Keychain Access has been there since the beginning of OSX/macOS. It's quietly been storing email and wifi passwords this entire time. Many, before there was an alternative like 1Password, used the app to store other info within as well through secure notes. Passwords in iOS and Safari, along with Keychain sync in iCloud have expanded the keychain functionality over the years and it's been fine for ~25 years or so. I have faith they won't suddenly screw this up and comparisons to less critical stuff like Screen Time aren't really valid here. And sherlocking? I don't think so. When 1Password came out, it was clearly inspired by Keychain Access that had been there for years prior with similar functionality and even user interfaces.

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davidfischer|1 year ago

Keychain Access has not been "fine". It's had multiple unaddressed data loss bugs. For example, Keychain lost all passwords from all Keychains after the Catalina update[1] and this wasn't fixed in the next 3 Catalina minor updates. Multiple users reported the issue to Apple and the response was crickets. Even if you restored the passwords, it helpfully deleted them all again. I switched to 1Password and declared Keychain Access a lost cause. I don't think I'll be giving them a second chance here.

[1] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250722178

ethbr1|1 year ago

That does seem like one Apple fault, that Microsoft does better -- triaging actual bugs.

Apple has devs. Maybe some teams are short-staffed, but they fix things.

What Apple doesn't seem to have is a functional bugfix priority loop that includes customer input and provides feedback.

icee|1 year ago

Depends on how we define "fine," but your own post clarifies that it was "website passwords -- but not app passwords, secure notes, certs, or keys." That's a pretty big difference compared to "all passwords" and seems like it affected a small number of people. In any case, if we're using anecdotes, I haven't had any issues with it so far and it's been decades. Given how 1Password has been getting shittier over time, I've been looking for an alternative, and I for one am going to give this a shot. You can check in with me in a few more decades and ask me if it went okay.