How to use iCloud Keychain on your iPhone

iCloud Keychain is a useful feature that allows you to save and synchronize login credentials and credit/debit card information for seamless use across your Apple devices. Let’s take a look at the different ways to utilize iCloud Keychain on an iPhone.

As the name indicates, iCloud Keychain stores your login credentials and payment card information on iCloud to be automatically accessible on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch after it has been initially saved. Once you’ve got it all set up, it can save you lots of time.

You decide what information you’d like to save with iCloud Keychain on an item by item basis once the feature is turned on. All information saved with iCloud Keychain is encrypted, even Apple can’t see it.

First we’ll look at making sure iCloud Keychain is turned on in your iPhone’s settings (if you know it already is, skip below).

How to turn on iCloud Keychain on your iPhone

1. Tap on the Settings application
2. Tap on your name at the top (if you’re not running iOS 10.3 or later swipe down and tap iCloud)
3. Tap iCloud
4. Swipe down and tap on Keychain
5. Tap on the toggle on the right hand side if it’s not already green

Now that iCloud Keychain is turned on, you’ll see iOS asking if you’d like to save your information in Safari.

How to save your information with iCloud Keychain

When you manually enter login or credit/debit card information in Safari you’ll see a pop-up like this:

When you choose Save Password that information will AutoFill for that website in the future on that device along with any other Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch that has iCloud Keychain turned on that is also signed into iCloud using the same Apple ID.

Keep in mind you’ll need to use Safari as your web browser on all your Apple devices to use iCloud Keychain.

How to set iCloud Keychain to AutoFill similar websites with saved info

In some cases you may have previously saved login information for a desktop site that won’t automatically be populated for a mobile site. For example, if you go to Twitter’s website on an iPhone you’ll be re-directed automatically to the mobile version.

You can quickly let Safari know you’d like to use a previously saved username and password with the mobile site.

1. Tap on the username or password field
2. With the keyboard now visible, tap Passwords just above the keyboard
3. Tap on the suggested saved password or Other Passwords… if the suggest option isn’t correct

How to manage your iCloud Keychain information

There are a few ways to manage all the information you have saved with iCloud Keychain. Here’s one of the easiest ways:

1. Tap on the Settings application
2. Swipe down and tap on Safari
3. Tap Passwords (or AutoFill to manage credit card info)
4. Tap Edit in the top right corner to delete multiple logins or swipe from right to left to delete individual items.
5. Tap on an item to see the details including the user name, password, and the associated website(s)

How to manage general AutoFill/iCloud Keychain settings

1. Tap on the Settings application
2. Swipe down and tap on Safari
3. Tap AutoFill

As the image above shows, you can decide what information Safari will AutoFill with iCloud Keychain. If you prefer to save usernames and passwords, but not credit/debit cards you can turn that feature off.

You can also manage what contact card is used for AutoFill. For example, if you have an iPhone for business and one for personal use, you can adjust the AutoFill My Info setting accordingly.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide.

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