{"id":48418,"date":"2025-07-09T14:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=48418"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:32:51","slug":"downloading-xcode-with-a-passkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/09\/downloading-xcode-with-a-passkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Downloading Xcode With a Passkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I went to download<\/a> the new Xcode beta, I again ran into an annoying Safari behavior, which seems to be specific to Apple’s sites. It pops up an Apple Account<\/strong> sheet offering to sign me in. But it can only sign in with my personal Apple ID, not my developer one. I have to click the blue text “button” to pick a different account, and there’s no keyboard shortcut for that.<\/p>\n\n

Signing into Apple sites normally requires Apple’s special 2FA, which doesn’t work with Safari<\/a> autofill<\/a>. So I thought I’d try the Sign in with Passkey<\/strong> button to log in with one step. This should be an ideal use case: Apple’s browser, Apple’s Web site, Apple’s password manager. The first time I clicked the button it showed a progress spinner, and nothing happened for 30 seconds. I reloaded the page and tried again. After 5 seconds, it showed a Sign In<\/strong> sheet, but like the first one it wanted to use my personal Apple ID. I clicked Other Sign in Options<\/strong>, but that only let me use a passkey from a different mobile device or a hardware key.<\/p>\n\n

I thought it was supposed to let me choose from multiple passkeys. Maybe the problem is that I don’t have one for my developer account? I opened the Passwords app, and the Passkeys<\/strong> section showed nothing<\/em> for Apple. How could this be when account.apple.com<\/a> does let me sign into my personal account with a passkey? I’m losing hope for the new credentials exchange feature if the app doesn’t even show<\/em> all of my passkeys.<\/p>\n\n

It seems like I need to create a passkey for my developer account, but I don’t see how to do that. I see nothing about passkeys at account.apple.com<\/a> or at developer.apple.com\/account\/<\/a>. The documentation<\/a> is almost comically unhelpful:<\/p>\n

  1. From anywhere on the Apple Developer website, click Account on the top right.<\/p><\/li>

  2. Sign in to your Apple Account.<\/p><\/li><\/ol><\/blockquote>\n

    Stack Exchange<\/a> has no idea, saying only that passkeys are created automatically.<\/p>\n\n

    Previously:<\/p>\n