Fixing SecureEnclave related errors

Sometimes a new credential cannot be registered due to an error regarding SecureEnclave on macOS.

The error messages can be various. The common thing that all mention SecureEnclave. Errors like these are usually happening due to a local keychain error.

Why does it happen?

The first time the authenticator starts, it tries to create a key in the secure enclave to determine if the enclave is available. If the call fails in non-particular ways, the authenticator will consider this as a failure and retry the call a few times after a certain delay. After that, the authenticator returns an error message.

registration
InternalError
{“Err”:{“ServiceError”:“HandleUrl(Register(NewKey(\“Provider(AnyhowWrap(an internal tee error has occurred: isSecureEnclaveAvailable: false, method: Legacy, error: Unable to determine Secure Enclave status, see previous errors))\“)))“}}

A password reset may also cause this problem. This is related to the password for the keychain file being out of sync with the user’s password.

How to fix?

1. Reset your keychain. There are multiple guides available on the internet about how to reset your local keychain. One of the guides can be found here.
2. Restart your macOS.