iCloud Keychain

The new Apple Passwords app makes it easier than ever to save login details for your apps, start using passkeys and create shared groups.

iCloud Keychain has been around for years, saving your passwords for you. But if you’ve ever had to copy a password out of the system to enter on a different computer, you had to dig through Settings — if you could even figure out how. The functionality discouraged a lot of people from using Apple’s password manager. It’s easy to find in iOS 18, thanks to a dedicated Passwords app you can put on your Home Screen.

The time of using the same password on all your internet accounts is over. Apple’s password manager is free, syncs everywhere (even with Windows PCs) and is incredibly easy to use. It creates strong passwords and automatically fills them in so you never need to.

Here’s how it works.

You can share passwords on iPhone automatically with your entire family, so you don’t have to reuse the same password everywhere or let everyone in your family know when a shared password is changed.

Setting up this feature is easy and saves the hassle of being texted “hey I can’t get into Amazon, what’s that password again?” and “I need you to send me the code.” When you set up shared passwords, two-factor authentication and passkeys are shared, too.

It’s a huge time-saver, and highly recommended.

Here’s how to set it up.

Apple is bringing iCloud’s password manager to third-party web browsers with macOS Sonoma. So far, you could only access passwords saved in iCloud from Safari on your Mac.

This will no longer be the case once macOS Sonoma lands later this year. The move will make iCloud Keychain a more compelling alternative to popular third-party password managers.

There’s much more to iCloud Keychain than meets the eye. Apple’s password-management system suggests strong passwords, autofills them whenever you need to sign in later, and syncs across all your devices. But you also can use iCloud Keychain to keep two-factor authentication codes (instead of relying on Google Authenticator) and access your passwords on Windows.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about how Apple should make a standalone Passwords app. That’s because a lot of the more advanced features in iCloud Keychain are pretty hard to find. You have to dig into Settings to locate them.

There’s a workaround: I have a Shortcut that will add a convenient Passwords icon to your iPhone’s Home Screen. Using iCloud Keychain becomes a lot easier.

iOS and iPadOS 15.4 make a small but welcome change to the way in which Safari saves login information. As of the third beta release, which rolled out to developers on Tuesday, passwords without user names won’t be saved.

The change, which also applies to macOS 12.3 Monterey, means users will be prompted to add a user name before they can save a new password. It helps prevent a buildup of passwords you can’t remember the user names for.

Apple has rolled out a somewhat surprise Google Chrome extension that allows users to access iCloud Passwords on Windows machines.

You can use it to sync all the passwords you’ve created on Mac, iPhone, and iPad to your Windows desktop. And to sync any passwords you create in Chrome to iCloud Keychain for use on Apple devices.

We’ll show you how to get set up.

The iCloud Keychain password manager built into iOS and macOS is reportedly getting support for two-factor authentication. This is a feature now only available in third-party password managers like Dashlane. It would make storing and using passwords more secure.

One fantastic new feature of iOS 12 is that password manager apps can integrate into the built-in password autofill. You know how when you tap a password field in Safari, and it offers to fill the password in from your iCloud Keychain? It’s pretty handy right?

Now it can also serve up passwords form third-party apps like Dashlane and 1Password. And that’s not all.

One of the biggest password managers for iOS and Mac will not be acquired by Apple, despite rumors to the contrary.

1Password issued a response this morning to a report that Apple is in talks to acquire it saying the rumor is “completely false.” AgileBits, the developer studio behind 1Password, has been independent since its inception and the firm says it plans to remain so indefinitely.

Nobody likes having to type a password every time they need to sign in to a website or service. iCloud Keychain is Apple’s take on simplifying password management across the Mac, iPhone and iPad. It securely stores your user names, passwords, and credit and debit card details, then auto-fills fields when required. It can also generate strong passwords and sync Wi-Fi credentials.

If you’re deep into the Apple ecosystem, it might be a good idea to start using this handy feature. Before we dive in to use it, let’s have a look at all the features of iCloud Keychain.

Apple warns that the iOS 10.3 update rolled out last week could inadvertently re-enable some iCloud features that users previously disabled.

Users have been asked to revisit the iCloud settings page to disable any services they do not use.

Apple gave hackers an inside look at how it keeps iOS 10 secure during a recent Black Hat conference keynote that has now been made available to view online. 

The keynote by Apple security expert Ivan Krstic discusses three iOS security mechanisms (HomeKit, Auto Unlock and iCloud Keychain) in unprecedented detail, showing key elements of Apple’s cryptographic design. If you’ve ever been curious how Apple keeps all your private data safe, it’s well worth watching. 

Check it out below:

By now you’ve heard all about the catastrophic Heartbleed bug and how it has siphoned passwords, credit card numbers, emails and other data to the vampires who would drain all of us dry. From your love life (OKCupid) to your tax returns, there’s a lot at stake.

Since 66% of web servers are vulnerable to the bug, that means you’re faced with only task more fun than decluttering the garage: changing your passwords.

To help you on your password resetting chores, we’ve compiled the best tools to make the process as quick and painless as possible. Also, they’ll sync your new passwords to your iPhone — all in under 10 minutes. Leaving you time to watch Silicon Valley again.  You’re welcome.

Here’s how:

iOS users that long for something other than Safari will be delighted to know that Google has released a free update for Chrome for iOS.

The new updated includes an Autofill feature that lets users complete forms with just a few clicks, similar to the autofill feature Apple introduced in iOS 7 with iCloud Keychain. Along with some stability enhancements and bug fixes, Google has also improved image searches by adding the ability to long press on an image to search for related images.

Here are the release notes:

The big iPad event might be over, but take heart fellow Apple fans, there are still plenty of great Apple stories to chat about on our all-new CultCast. This episode: the iPhone stops giving motion sickness to the pukers; some of your favorite Apple apps get big redesigns; the new Macbook Pro gets benchmarked; Apple puts your passwords in the iCloud; and more!

Join us for our second CultCast this week! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let baseline roll. And don’t miss episode 96 for our MEGAsode coverage on all that was announced at Apple’s big Oct. 22nd event.

Apple seeded the iOS 7 GM to developers yesterday, and while it didn’t have any major new features – unless you cream your pants at the mention of new wallpapers and ringtones – Apple actually removed one of iOS 7’s most anticipated features from the beta: iCloud Keychain.

AutoFill has been a part of OS X and Apple’s browser, Safari, for a while now. When you fill out forms on the web, Safari will prompt you to use your contact info to fill in the form, or to use the form data you entered as your AutoFill information. This is helpful as you fill out a lot of web forms, of course.

Now, in OS X Mavericks beta, Safari has a new trick up its sleeve, with the ability to suggest secure passwords to you, and then saving them for you when you go back to that site. It’s called iCloud Keychain, and here’s how to set it up.

There are even more improvements in OS X Mavericks, and the first of them is iCloud Keychain.

Craig Ferenghi says the new iCloud Keychain will keep track of website logins, credit card numbers, and Wi-Fi passwords, synced across iCloud to all your devices.

iCloud Keychain can also generate unique passwords for you, then automatically store them. And since this is all database stuff, it implies iCloud can now handle Core Data… a big failing in iCloud beforehand.

It’s all encrypted, too. Of course, with data vulnerabilities at an all-time high, whether you want to use iCloud Keychain might depend on how paranoid you were.