Keychain

Keychain
Eudora Tip #227/16-June-2004

A correspondent recently wrote: One irritating feature I find is to have to enter the password. Not every time, but it seems Eudora sometimes ‘forgets’ the password is stored. Is there a tip for getting round this?

Apple’s Keychain is the answer to this problem. Sometimes Eudora’s mail check fails for reasons not necessarily connected with Eudora. In that case Eudora may decide that the stored password isn’t effective and asks the user to enter it again. When I was checking mail from the .Mac service this happened very often.

If you store your passwords in the Keychain then the problem goes away. See MacTips 57 and 58 from June 2002 on Passwords for more information about the Keychain.

A word of warning: before you attempt to change how Eudora handles your email passwords make sure you know what they are. See Eudora Tips 142 and 143 from July 2002 for information on how to use Logging to retrieve a password. If you lose or forget your email password while changing how it’s stored then you won’t be able to get your email. Be warned.

In fact, make sure you have a good backup of your whole Eudora Folder. Eudora Tips 46 and 47 from August 2000 and 212 from February 2004 will help.

So, if you’ve previously used Eudora to store your password you can now uncheck the Save Password box in the Checking mail section of the Settings.

Then in a Eudora message double-click the following X-setting and enter “y” (without the quotes). Then click Set Setting.

<x-eudora-setting:275>

Whether or not Eudora uses the system keychain for password storage.

If your Keychain is locked when Eudora tries to use it an alert will appear. Note that for security reasons I’ve used Photoshop to change the name of my Keychain in the screenshot. Enter your Keychain password and Eudora will go ahead and retrieve your email.