macOS App Keychain errSecAuthFailed after long run, restart fixes

Question

Created Apr ’25

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I'm writing an app on macOS that stores passwords in the Keychain and later retrieves them using SecItemCopyMatching(). This works fine 90% of the time. However, occasionally, the call to SecItemCopyMatching() fails with errSecAuthFailed (-25293). When this occurs, simply restarting the app resolves the issue; otherwise, it will consistently fail with errSecAuthFailed.

What I suspect is that the Keychain access permission has a time limitation for a process. This issue always seems to arise when I keep my app running for an extended period.

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Apr ’25

Are you using the data protection keychain or the file-based keychain?

See TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations for a definition of those terms.

Also, I’m curious how long this “extended period” is. I don’t need an exact number, but is it typically hours, days, weeks, months, years?

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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Answer 2

Ere0n OP

Apr ’25

Hi Quinn, I just checked my code. There is no setting of the kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain attribute or the kSecAttrSynchronizable attribute to true. So I think I'm using the file - based keychain.

Should I update to the data protection keychain?

By the way, I don't want my stored passwords to be synced via iCloud. So, do I just need to set kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain to true and kSecAttrSynchronizable to false?

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Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Apr ’25

Accepted Answer

So I think I'm using the file - based keychain.

OK.

Should I update to the data protection keychain?

My general advice is that you should use the data protection keychain where possible. Earlier you wrote:

I'm writing an app on macOS that stores passwords in the Keychain

If this is:

A standard GUI app
And you’re writing new code
And your deployment target in 10.15 or later

then I can’t see anything blocking you from using the data protection keychain, so my general advice is “Yes.”

do I just need to set kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain to true … ?

Yes.

do I just need to set … kSecAttrSynchronizable to false?

If you don’t want syncing then just omit that key entirely. kSecUseDataProtectionKeychain is sufficient.

Regardless of what keychain implementation you’re using, see the following for lots of info on how to une it correctly:

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—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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