You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Do Passkeys work with Monterey 12.7.6 - Can't Find a Straight Answer

TLDR: I have an older MacBook (Early 2015), that cannot be upgraded past Mac OS Monterey, because it was built when Apple was using intel processors and Venture cannot be run on any of those systems. The good news is apple does continue to update Monterey on a regular basis. Today while creating an account for a new app I'd downloaded to my iPhone 14, I was asked if I wanted to setup a Passkey, instead of a Password. I figured before doing so I should make sure my old MacBook supports the use and syncing of PassKeys and I cannot find a straight answer. Does anyone know?


Details: Can anyone provide a definitive answer as to whether PassKeys will sync across my apple devices when one of those devices is an older MacBook that cannot be upgraded past Mac OS Monterey? I have an old MacBook from the era when Apple was using intel processors. As a result, I am unable to upgrade to Mac OS Venture and am stuck with Monterey 12.7.6. Anyhow, I was in the process of setting up a new account for an app I downloaded to my iPhone 14 and for the first time my phone asked if I'd rather create a PassWORD, or if I would like to create a PassKEY instead, using either Keychain or MS Authenticator which I have to have installed for work purposes. Being unfamiliar with Passkeys, I wanted to look into what they are and also wanted to determine if Passkeys can be used with my old mac, as many new OS features require Ventura. Unfortunately, upon researching I'd say about half the articles say Venture is require and the other half say Passkeys work with Monterey... I even found one article that says they will work with Mac OS Big Sur! My best guess is at one time passkeys only worked with Ventura but since apple continues to update Monterey, to not leave those of us with intel based MacBooks in a bind, perhaps the functionality for Passkeys was added down the road... at least that would explain the discrepancies amongst articles (I.e. If Monterey didn't initially support Passkeys, until a later update, then articles written before the update would say Passkeys require Ventura and articles written after the hypothetical updates reflect the fact that Passkeys now work with Monterey). Can anyone provide a definitive answer as to whether PassKeys will work across my apple devices, and will all sync up as expected, when one of those devices is an older MacBook that cannot be upgraded past Mac OS Monterey?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Sep 5, 2024 8:25 AM

Reply
6 replies

Sep 5, 2024 6:02 PM in response to davidlamp

Can anyone provide a definitive answer as to whether PassKeys will sync across my apple devices when one of those devices is an older MacBook that cannot be upgraded past Mac OS Monterey?


I don't have a definitive answer that question, but if I sign in to this site on a Mac much older than one than runs Monterey it offers to sign in using a passkey, but only if I use a more recent browser than Monterey's version of Safari.


Edit: I just checked — the Mac in question is running High Sierra.

another Edit: Works with Big Sur also. Using Brave. Not sure about Safari.


So the answer to the question "do passkeys work" is certainly yes, but there are qualifiers which probably explains the inability to find a definitive answer.

Oct 14, 2024 9:37 PM in response to davidlamp

I can't say 100% for everything, but my MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015) is running Monterey 12.7.6 and supports Passkeys just fine for signing in to my Google Account when using Safari! I believe Apple did retroactively add support for passkeys in macOS 12.


And one more thing: Ventura (and later versions of macOS) do still support newer Intel-based Mac computers. My 2019 MacBook Pro 16" runs macOS Sequoia just fine, even if it doesn't get all the features that the M-series Macs get.



Edit: it appears Apple developed Monterey with provisions that allowed them to switch the passkeys functionality on ever since it and iOS/iPadOS 15 first released, and did have it available as an option in the developer settings of Safari, so it's highly likely they just switched it on in a later update. https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/11/22529266/passkeys-icloud-keychain-ios-15-passwordless-future-security-login

Sep 5, 2024 12:06 PM in response to davidlamp

Passkeys are not supported on Monterey, but that doesn't prevent you from using them on your other devices.


Even if you have a passkey setup, Monterey doesn't know how to read/use it, so any site/application/whatever that you try to access would just prompt for the normal username/password as if a passkey never existed (which it doesn't, as far as Monterey is concerned).

Do Passkeys work with Monterey 12.7.6 - Can't Find a Straight Answer

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.