up vote 101 down vote favorite
36

I am on Ubuntu and I have forgotten the password for my Gnome Keyring (yes, stupid me, I know). Any way I can get it back? I have already looked at this link, but it says it's not possible if my home directory is encrypted and unfortunately my home directory is encrypted.

share|improve this question
up vote 124 down vote accepted

Resetting everything (delete all passwords and start new keyring):

rm ~/.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring

Or

Navigate to Places > Home. Press ctrl h to view "hidden files". Navigate to .gnome2 > keyrings and delete login.keyring

Using the same keyring (resetting keyring password but keeping old passwords in keyring):

  1. Make a backup of the keyring

    cd ~/.local/share/keyrings/
cp login.keyring login.keyring.backup

    and after that delete login.keyring file

    rm ~/.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring

  2. Create a new keyring file from Gnome Keyring with the name login

  3. Replace the new keyring file with the backup of the old keyring file

    cd ~/.local/share/keyrings/
mv login.keyring.backup login.keyring

Note: before Ubuntu 12.10 the path to the keyrings folder was ~/.gnome2/keyrings/ instead of ~/.local/share/keyrings/.

share|improve this answer
2  
how to do step 2? – xxor Feb 27 '15 at 13:04
    
@xxor: You create a new file there called login.keyring. – Paranoid Panda Aug 25 '15 at 21:28
1  
I thought it was a bit simple, it hasn't worked for me. It still says my password is wrong – Madivad Apr 23 '16 at 22:16
2  
I wonder why (and how) resetting the keyring password while keeping old passwords should work. And indeed it doesn't work for me (it says "The unlock password was incorrect") – Scz Aug 15 '16 at 8:12
2  
Indeed, "resetting keyring password but keeping old passwords in keyring" sounds absurd. – Alexey Aug 26 '16 at 12:52
up vote 29 down vote
  1. Start up Ubuntu's Dash (top most icon in Unity or press Super)
  2. Type Pass to get Passwords and Keys and start this (this will start the Gnome Keyring frontend seahorse)
  3. Next
    • If the password is known: Under Passwords the default folder select unlock, or
    • If the password is not known: right mouse click and delete for resetting.

Next time Ubuntu will ask for a new password for the keyring.

share|improve this answer
    
Thanks! (Or type seahorse directly.) – caw Jun 11 '17 at 23:08
up vote 8 down vote

Solved this by installing seahorse frontend.

share|improve this answer
3  
Note this is installed by default on Ubuntu installs. – Seanny123 Sep 3 '14 at 14:39
1  
@Seanny123 not installed by default on Xubuntu, at least.. probably also not on kubuntu/lubuntu/etc. – Jamieson Becker Dec 11 '16 at 17:50

protected by Community♦ Sep 5 '13 at 11:25

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).

Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.