- iCloud Keychain Automatically Remembers Your Usernames, Passwords and More
- Who Should Use iCloud Keychain?and Who Should Avoid It
- How to Set Up iCloud Keychain
- Customize iCloud Keychain to Meet Your Needs
- Final Thoughts?
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Customize iCloud Keychain to Meet Your Needs
On each of your iOS mobile devices, once the iCloud Keychain feature is turned on and active, you’ll want to customize it in several ways. First, from within Settings, tap on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option. From under the Contacts heading of the Mail, Contacts, Calendars submenu, tap on the My Info option.
When the All Contacts screen appears, select your own entry from the Contacts app’s database. If you don’t already have an entry, create one, and be sure to include your full name, phone number, email address, and physical address within the entry. This is information that will later be used to complete online forms as you’re surfing the web with Safari.
Next, from the main Settings menu, tap on the Safari option. Then, from the Safari submenu, tap on the Passwords & AutoFill option. From the Passwords & AutoFill submenu, turn on the virtual switch that’s associated with Use Contact Info, and confirm that the My Info field below it displays your name (from your Contacts entry). Doing this will allow Safari to automatically fill in online forms with your name, phone number, and address, for example, when you tap on the AutoFill option as you’re web surfing.
Also from the Passwords & AutoFill submenu, turn on the virtual switch associated with the Names and Passwords option. This allows iCloud Keychain to begin storing all of your website-specific usernames and passwords within iCloud Keychain. A pop-up window suggesting that you turn on the iPhone or iPad’s Passcode security feature will appear. This will prevent others from gaining access to your device and being able to launch Safari and logging into websites using your usernames and passwords.
If you want iCloud Keychain to also remember your credit and/or debit card-related information, so as you’re shopping online, you will not have to manually enter this information each time you make an online purchase, from the Passwords & AutoFill submenu, also turn on the virtual switch that’s associated with the Credit Cards option. If you have not already turned on your device’s Passcode feature, you’ll be encouraged to do so now.
At this point, you can enter details pertaining to the credit or debit card(s) you frequently use to make online purchases. To do this, tap on the Saved Credit Cards option, and then tap on the Add Credit Card option.
From the Add Credit Card screen, you can manually enter the Cardholder Name, Account Number, Expiration Date, and a Description for the card, or tap on the Use Camera option and take advantage of your iPhone or iPad’s built in camera to scan your debit or credit card and store the details within your mobile device. Keep in mind, this process is similar to, but separate from setting up the new Apple Pay feature if you’re an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, or eventually an Apple Watch user.
Once all of the information requested by the Passwords & AutoFill submenu within Settings has been entered, exit out of Settings. Now, whenever you’re using Safari on that mobile device, iCloud Keychain will automatically remember your usernames, passwords, and/or other information as you surf the web.
Remember, you’ll need to turn on and adjust these same settings on each of your other iOS mobile devices. However, you can opt to use iCloud Keychain to remember only website-specific usernames and passwords, but not your credit or debit card details, for example, simply by leaving the virtual switch associated with the Credit Cards option (found within the Passwords & AutoFill submenu within Settings) turned off.