jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Have I ever mentioned that I hate passwords, and Apple's system in particular? Of course I have. I have spent hours on my iMac 27 this morning trying to sign in to various things, with little success. Sure, LastPass and Google can remember thousands of passwords, but they don't insert them when I need them. If I had LastPass make up a p/w for me, it would be impossible to remember it, and when I had to fill it in on my own, I would be stuck.

Some sites require a special character, but other sites forbid them. Some sites will not let me use any password that I have ever used before. Apple made me go through several because it said some were too easy to guess. Really? They say you shouldn't use one password for everything, but that isn't possible because different sites have different requirements. My email password works on my email site, but Apple will not accept it to retrieve email from the site. It says it is wrong.

What's most frustrating is changing a password and then not being able to sign in with it. And why does Apple require so many passwords? Couldn't I have just one? I went through a very lengthy process to change my Apple password, but when I tried to use it for something, it said it was invalid. The stupid keychain never works, and I keep getting windows popping up asking me if I want to reset to default. I click Yes, but it can't do that, and it can't Cancel, either, so that stupid keychain window keeps popping up. What a morning!

I'm not looking for help or advice, because this is like running through quicksand, and there is nothing that will help. I'm just letting off steam.

ken_stern Loc: Yorba Linda, Ca

On this subject we are in:
Violent Agreement

Straightshooter Loc: Edmonton AB

I feel your pain my wife has 2 I-Pads and can'
t remember her passwords and after 6 try's they lock you out for good and they keep trying to tell what to do and how to do it and I am slowly deleting Apple products out of my life

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...hahaha...I only laugh in commiseration, Jerry! When all else fails I call them; and it starts all over again.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

My sister has an iPhone and decided to change carriers from AT&T to Verizon. The Costco kiosk said they could do it. To make a long story short, they required that you enter your Apple ID password so that she could retrieve an email from AT&T to "unlock" the phone so that it would work on Verizons network. She entered the password wrong 3 times and it locked her out of ALL her Apple devices for 2 days. Yes, her iPad, her laptop (I forgt what they call them) and her phone were almost completely disabled because she entered the password wrong 3 times. Anyway, she got the Genius Bar to help get the Apple devices back up, then it took AT&T another 2 days to get her iPhone unlocked so that she could get it working on the Verizon network. In total, 5 days without a phone because she entered the password wrong 3 times. Apple sucks. Even the Genius Bar couldn't do anything for the 2 day waiting period. Nothing!

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

I try to use one for almost everything, and when I change it, I change all of them (takes awhile). But this does not last--soon, some of them make me change (some every 90 days), or for other reasons. Now I have half a dozen or so. But I write them down in a Rollodex by my phone and computer. I know we are not supposed to write them down, but I do it anyway. I don't have strangers in the house and rarely anybody at all. The yard man and the house cleaner know nothing about computers and passwords. My neighborhood has had no burglaries in living memory.

For digits I use ancient numbers such as my phone number from 50 years ago (5 digits!), which even my relatives don't remember; but I could always change one digit to baffle them. Or I use the house number from long ago, before anything was entered into any computer systems. I have also tried uB&s77 with digits for Uncle Bill and Sally, but once tried uB&c to baffle them (there was no Aunt Clara).

Some people use opening lines or titles from fairy tales or other literature (!sW&7ds, or change one character for fun).

My pin number for banks and credit cards is 4 numbers, and I don't use that in any passwords--but if I did for the sake of remembering digits, I would change a digit or two. My Spanish teacher in high school was Mrs. Liles, now long gone--possible password mLiles64? (the year I learned Spanish--which is also long gone). Her name does not appear in any data base of my Internet records or family tree, but she was my favorite teacher. My brother tricked out an old Ford convertible in high school--Fc,1954 and nobody would find that researching my data in Equifax, at work, or anywhere else.

There isn't any solution to all your complaints, but fingerprint or handprint recognition will come close, yes? Or how about this--use a regular brass key that turns a brass lock and permits access (just like the house)?

By the way, I use Norton Security, and it does have a password safe where you put your passwords in it, then it remembers them for you and automatically opens all your sites for you, once you sign in to Norton's Identity Safe. You would have to know that one password from memory (and they don't make you change it). I can go through all my sites and accounts one by one, and it signs me in automatically.

Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

what frustrates me is not all the passwords I need to use, but the fact that I must change passwords and deal with possible theft of my data every few months after the site gets hacked because of THEIR lax security!

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

Isn't the advice in most movies where someone is stuck in quicksand to stop struggling. Maybe that is so you will have a more peaceful passing.

And I assume that you know that you can go in and see what is lurking in the Mac "Keychain" and perhaps do some tinkering there. {At your own risk of course.} Good luck & Happy Holidays.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

At work we have a password for our workstation PC, a LAN network password, a password to access the mainframe network, individual system password and a plethora of applications passwords. To keep things interesting, the workstation and network passwords have to change every 30 days.
I use theme based passwords to help make them easier to remember. The other day was password day so I changed the workstation password first. The password met all the requirements. An upper case character, a number and a non alphanumeric character. Windows liked it, so I changed the LAN password to the same, no problem. When I tried to use the new password for the mainframe gateway it wouldn't let me.
The password is 10 characters long and not at all similar to the last password but, apparently the last 3 characters 'ckr' were also the last 3 characters in one of the previous 10 passwords.
What a crock of hooie...
I know security is important, but seriously! ?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And this is the third time I had to sign in to UHH today! : )

Geezer Loc: Capreol, Ontario, Canada

I feel your pain, Jerry....

To prevent taxing my memory (which my wife says I'm losing)... I just keep all my account names and passwords on a Note Pad file right on my desktop.

The only way to get them is to steal my laptop. But then again, you'll need a password to start Windows. So I just have to remember one only.

The movie "Saving Private Ryan" had the "paper and pencil" scene which shows us that ancient technology still might work....

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Write the damn things down. Thieves nick your PC....not rummage through the cupboards looking for your password so they can surf the net - they read your 'memerable numbers' of the card at the ATM - or clone it when you use the 'swipe' function. My bank needs my childs DOB....Damned if I can remember what I originally told them...Probably something I made up....I get the wife to do the banking!!!! then blame her when she gets it wrong.

DLH13 Loc: Texas

A great app is ewallet on the apple App Store. It is a great password manager. We also keep written updates as well. A pain in the A@#, but state of the times:(

Millismote Loc: Massachusetts

I think Norton Security, a password safe seems very conveniente but you are opening the door for hackers to penetrate either your computer or Norton Security. My passwords, the important ones are all 11 characters long and take three pages on a spreadsheet. They are kept on a flash drive and on a usb external drive not plugged in to the computer. a printed copy is also kept. Never use a word associated with your family or any word found in a dictionary. Password are serious business, you may find that out the hard way if some one steals one of yours.

Stevemj49

I use a sentence like ..... When am I going to buy my next camera?2017.....Use the first letter of each word. The P/W would be
Waigtbmnc?2017. Just use a phrase that you can remember. Or maybe .....I am never going to use Apple again 2017... which would be .....IangtuAa2017....obviously, don't use a different phrase for everyone. Or you could use..... I am signing into my uhh account2017 .... Iasimuhha2017. Just a thought. Won't work for everything but might help...........