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Troubleshooting "CCC was unable to modify the keychain entry" errors

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Technical background (optional reading)

In the CCC 7.1 update, we changed the bundle identifier of CCC's helper tool to make for a smoother transition to a new method of registering the helper tool with macOS. The bundle identifier is a key component for determining whether an application has access to a keychain item, so this change could have rendered the CCC keychain items inaccessible to the CCC 7.1 helper tool. To make pre-7.1 CCC keychain items accessible to the post-7.1 helper tool, we included a small keychain item upgrade in the CCC 7.0.4 and CCC 6.1.12 updates. When loading those versions of CCC (which still used the older bundle identifier, and thus still had access to the CCC-created keychain entries), the access control lists on the CCC-created keychain items would be updated to allow access from the forthcoming helper tool bundle identifier. 

If you upgraded to CCC 7.1 from a version of CCC older than 6.1.12, or if you updated to CCC 7.1 from a version of CCC prior to 7.0.4, then the newer version of CCC will not be able to access the CCC keychain entries stored in the System keychain. In those cases, you may encounter errors when CCC attempts to mount a network volume, unlock an encrypted volume, send an email, or while updating the passwords associated with those activities. 

To solve this access issue, you must delete the CCC-created keychain entries in the Keychain Access application.

Solution

  1. Navigate in the Finder to Macintosh HD --> System > Library > CoreServices > Applications [Ventura and Sonoma users: Navigate to the Applications > Utilities folder
  2. Open the Keychain Access application
  3. Select the System keychain in the sidebar
  4. Type "CCC" in the search field in the toolbar (if this comes up empty, select the login keychain in the sidebar, then re-select the System keychain and repeat the search)
  5. Select any keychain entries that start with "CCC: "
  6. Right-click on the selection and choose the option to delete the keychain entries; authenticate when prompted
  7. Open CCC
  8. Try again to save the password in CCC