what's the point of the new passwords app in sequoia?

By LaBoheme, 13 January, 2025

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

certificates, keys, login tokens and secure notes still managed by keychain access app. just separate the plain username password pairs and put it in a new app and this makes it better?
also hide the keychain access app in "System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/" to make it harder to find, i don't get it.

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Comments

By Sebby on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 - 13:58

Honestly I think it better that only essential categories of information were exposed, and putting that in an app people can find instead of Settings obviously makes more sense. I mean, realistically, when was the last time you wanted to synchronise a TLS client certificate or an IMAP server password? Regardless of what you think of Apple's password manager (I use Strongbox, FWIW, which uses the same autofill capabilities in Safari) it's hard not to see it as a clear improvement for most people. IMO.

Of course it would be nice if Apple offered an "I know what I'm doing" switch during setup that turned off all this silly hiding and locking down and other nonsense. Because, let's face it, all the stuff in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications is perfectly useful to people who know what they're doing. As are full disk access, turning off SIP, and all that jazz ...

By Igna Triay on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 - 13:58

I mean I can see the why they moved it to a place where one wouldn't say access it by accident, I.e, utilities, but its also... Pointless. After all, you can access it through spotlight as well so... Yeah a bit confused as to this whole thing, to be honest.

By Soren on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 - 13:58

The answer is to sepperate passwords form non-human-readable certificates and alike, which will probably get their own manager in the future.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 13:58

And having to go to terminal to get the real hibernation mode back again. Wait I thought we had full disk access through terminal didn't we?
Password app... I use 1password everywhere but I liked strongbox but not the equivalent of keepass with almost impossible to configure autofill on windows... Password app is good for the majority of people as password manager is already a complicated concept by its own now. How do they think passkeys will solve the problem and make it easier is beyond me.

By LaBoheme on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 13:58

before, you simply manage your login/password pairs in safari > preferences > passwords, now it tells you to open a unnecessary new app. if login password pair is all you do, you never had to venture out of the browser.

also in the past, if you need to diagnose something or simply curious, you open keychain access, enter a keyword such as "apples", and everything pertinent is there--password, key pair, certificates, token--, now you have to do this in two apps. and if the previous poster's prediction comes true, you'll have to do this with several apps, and that's an improvement?

By TheBlindGuy07 on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 13:58

Like itunes.

By Sebby on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 13:58

It's a pity there isn't a more full-featured app than the original KeePass, yes. KeePassXC is fiddly. And that's probably the main argument against going with Strongbox.

I think passkeys would be fine if there was a simple way to migrate them, back them up, etc. The trouble is they've been jumped on by big tech for a spot of light vendor lock-in. But in principle the idea of a random keypair shouldn't be any more trouble than a random password, if managed well.

The Passwords app also lets you see Wi-Fi passwords. FWIW. And, obviously, you don't have to use it if you only operate in the browser, but only if you want to actually see them. I suppose it would be nice to view your passwords in the same spot you configure autofill, but is it the end of the world? Clearly, there are times you need to see your passwords, and having a nice way to do that does make sense IMO.

By LaBoheme on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 13:58

i mean, what does syncing photos has to do with managing apps or storing devices? but the most serious flaw is apple's own software quality, itunes became slow to run on many computers.
keychain access on the other hand has a clear mission, to manage credentials.

By AppleFan01 on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 13:58

Most other third party password manager requires a app to function
Another reason could be new Mac users will be able to manage saved password more easily with that app instead of going to system settings everytime.