The Easy Way To Sync Your Mac’s Keychain To Another Mac Or iOS Device

Have you ever looked at your Mac’s Keychain? That’s the somewhat hidden app that stores and retrieves your Mac’s login IDs and passwords.

The passwords for your Mail accounts? They’re in the Keychain. Those login ID and passwords that automagically pop up in Safari when you login to a web site? They’re store in the keychain. So, how do you keep those login IDs and passwords synchronized from one Mac to another?

As it turns out, there’s an app for that.

The Old Way vs. The New Way

For me, back in the early days, I would keep my Keychain file synced from desktop Mac to notebook Mac the old fashioned way.

I’d copy it from one Mac to the other. That gave me all the same login IDs and passwords on both Macs, but it wasn’t exactly a synchronization process.

Apple’s MobileMe provided a Keychain sync function which helped, but those days are gone and iCloud, while priced right, doesn’t sync like MobileMe did the Keychain.

What to do? Try the Keychain2Go for Mac and iOS. It’s a way to access, synchronize, and change your Keychain on multiple Apple devices; specifically your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Keychain2Go makes your Keychain data available on multiple Macs or iPhones (or iPads, et al), so you can keep changes in sync.

Setup and usage is straightforward. Launch Keychain2Go on your Mac. Enable sync for each keychain to specified devices and you’re go to go. Literally.

This back and forth sync system works for login IDs, passwords, even notes. The iOS version works in a similar, though smaller interface.

I’ve been a longtime user of 1Password, which does an online Dropbox sync between Macs and iOS devices, but that’s a more comprehensive, and expensive solution.

Plus, 1Password doesn’t sync your Mac’s standard Keychain between Macs; only the extra data you add.

Keychain2Go also encrypts your Keychain data using a master passphrase and password via AES, the Advanced Encryption Standard.

You’ll spend a few dollars on Keychain2Go for Mac (but is a try-before-you-buy app). The iOS app is priced even lower.

That said, it’s extra effort to keep the Keychains synchronized, so I look forward to the day when iCloud gets upgraded to include Keychain sync.

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