{"id":43353,"date":"2024-05-21T14:48:39","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T18:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=43353"},"modified":"2024-11-01T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T20:07:14","slug":"apple-updates-silently-enable-icloud-keychain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/21\/apple-updates-silently-enable-icloud-keychain\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Updates Silently Enable iCloud Keychain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve discovered today that unfortunately this issue—this bug, I would call it, though who knows whether Apple considers it a bug or “expected behavior”—still exists with the latest versions of macOS Ventura and Sonoma, 13.6.7 and 14.5 respectively.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

The external drive had a macOS Ventura 13.6.7 boot volume with iCloud enabled but iCloud Keychain disabled. After updating the volume to macOS Sonoma 14.5, iCloud Keychain was enabled. (I then disabled iCloud Keychain, which actually caused System Settings to hang and eventually crash, but afterward iCloud Keychain did seem to be disabled.)<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

What I’d like to do is update from Ventura to Sonoma without an internet connection, giving Sonoma no chance to upload my passwords or other data to iCloud before I can disable iCloud Keychain.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

You might wonder why I don’t sign out of iCloud before<\/em> I update from Ventura to Sonoma. It turns out that there’s no point in that, due to another<\/em> bug, “Signing out of iCloud and signing back in again forgets all of your previous iCloud settings” (FB12168173), which I also discovered last year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because installing macOS also<\/em> re-enables Wi-Fi, his workaround was to turn off Wi-Fi after downloading the installer, delete his Wi-Fi password, and then install the update.<\/p>\n\n

Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The success of the trial run gave me the confidence to update my main development machine, an M1 MacBook Pro, from Ventura to Sonoma. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, I experienced a different result the second time. As before, the workaround did successfully prevent Sonoma from connecting to my WiFi network. And as before, I confirmed in System Settings that iCloud Keychain was still disabled after the Sonoma update. However, after I finally connected to my WiFi network again, I discovered to my horror that Sonoma did<\/em> then silently enable iCloud Keychain. My workaround was ultimately futile.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Mysk<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If you’ve never enabled iCloud Keychain and recently upgraded to iOS 17, chances are good that your passwords are now stored on Apple servers. As confirmed by many users, iOS 17 secretly turns iCloud Keychain on. This video shows the entire process step by step[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n