Sourcetree refuses to use keychain
Asked by Wesley Boynton:

Hello!  

Each time Sourcetree attempts to use my credentials for any account, OSX prompts me with a message informing me that 'SourceTree wants to use your confidential information stored in "github.com" in your keychain' - If I hit "Allow" or "Always Allow", nothing happens. The dialog remains in-place for an infinite number of clicks until I finally press "Deny."

I've tried deleting my credentials, reinstalling sourcetree...nothing works. Any assistance would be really helpful!


Answers:
author: manish-makwana
body: I've got the same issue - sourcetree 2.2.4. Ironically my github account works fine, but it's the Bitbucket one that gets stuck on keychain access. I've been able to bypass the issue by following Wesley Boynton's solution of allowing global access to the Bitbucket credential. Still pretty crappy.

It seems like Atlassian just does not monitor this forum at all?


author: Wesley Boynton
body: **Temporary Workaround:**I went into my keychain, found my github credential, and changed it to always allow access without password to that credential. Not super terrified of programs on my computer misusing my github creds...

<br />

That said, this is pretty crappy. Atlassian needs to fix this. Sourcetree continually asks for access, even when keychain reports that it has been explicitly allowed.


author: Wesley Boynton
body: I appreciate that Atlassian has provided not even an acknowledgement to this issue, much less a solution.

@Brian Brown, I fixed this by removing all of my repositories and adding the ones I actually use again. Another answer clued me in that a repository containing a remote to which I no longer have access might cause a (still inexcusable) keychain password loop. After deleting all of my bookmarks (without removing the repositories themselves from my machine) I can confirm that I'm not getting any nasty keychain notifications anymore.  

I hope this helps!  
\~Wes

comments: author: Brian Brown
body: Thank you very much! That worked!


author: Robert Lowe
body: The answer is don't use Sourcetree. I just switched to Github Desktop and everything is so simple. No pop-ups asking for passwords every few seconds, without it even being apparent which password is being asked for. Wasted so much time trying to configure and reconfigure Sourcetree. Good bye and good riddance


author: huttarl
body: This is really annoying, because the popup stays in front of all windows, so you keep having to drag it out of the way. It seems to keep coming up until you quit SourceTree, and even then you have to dismiss it several more times.

I had this problem in the past, and eventually found a solution, which lasted quite a few months. But with the upgrade to 4.0.2, the problem came back. And now I don't remember the solution that worked last time. Argh. Atlassian, please figure out a fix!


author: wallmanderco-jameswills
body: Still happening despite trying the above solutions. Come on Atlassian!!


author: Bayram Ali Bayrak
body: Go to KeyChain Access on MacOs Applications/Utilities. You need to add credentials which the popup wants.


author: alexandergrein
body: In my case the problem was a thirdparty software (MagicPrefs).

To check this out, start your mac in safemode. Then open sourcetree and try if the problem is still there.

If not, you have to find the bad guy. First remove all startup objects in your mac user profile. If this doesn't help, a user or system extension could be the problem too (like in my case).


author: Ryan Ault
body: FIX:

1. Download App Cleaner and trash everything related to SourceTree i.e. Application Support, Caches, Preferences (ignore the executable, which requires pro version). Close App Cleaner, you're done with it now.

2. Trash SourceTree from Applications folder manually

3. Restart your computer

4. Download SourceTree version 2.0.3[Download Now](http://downloads.atlassian.com/software/sourcetree/SourceTree_2.0.3.dmg)

5. Install, and everything should be golden (note: you'll have to add your local repositories again)

6. Yayy


author: alexandergrein
body: I can confirm the problem and I also nearly tried everything to get rid of it.

Reinstall, deleting preferences, deleting all repos and all user specific settings.

After adding some repos again, the damn window pops up again and sawn on my nerves.


author: xmollv
body: I'm having the same issue. I've even reinstalled the app and it's still crashing when I try to access the "Remote" section. I've deleted everything related to git/github/Bitbucket from my Keychain and it's still crashing.

I'm using the terminal until it's fixed ![sad](/html/@C495B4504065515364EB1894F812B34C/images/emoticons/sad.png "sad")


author: Wesley Boynton
body: Never mind. Removing my repositories worked for a while, but now after a full reinstall of sourcetree and a removal of all of my repositories, the problem has returned and is persisting.

Atlassian! Help, please!


author: Brian Brown
body: This happens to me too. I've tried exactly the same things you have.