If you use a MacBook, iMac, iPhone, or iPad to use Cliniko, then the default place for passkeys to be saved is iCloud Keychain. This is Apple's built-in security feature for passwords and passkeys, and it syncs across all of your different Apple devices as long as you're using the same Apple ID on each one.

We'll cover the following in this guide:

When you set up an Apple device, you're setting up a "profile" in iCloud—this is your Apple ID. Most people will use the same Apple ID on each Apple device they own, because it makes signing in to the device and associated apps a lot easier. Your Apple ID is the email address and password that is linked to how you log into your Apple computer, pay for apps downloaded from the App Store, or even purchase/rent movies on Apple TV.

If you have multiple Apple devices, your iCloud Apple ID will usually be synced across each one via iCloud Keychain. Apple has some information here on how this works. If your Apple ID and iCloud Keychain isn't synced across Apple devices, it's a lot harder to do things "seamlessly" across each one.

For example, if you use the same Apple ID on your MacBook and iPhone, logging into each one with Touch ID or Face ID will be a simple process, because your credentials have already been stored within Apple's built-in security, and your Apple devices "know" that it's you.

But if you use one specific Apple ID email address to log into an iMac at work, and a different specific Apple ID email address to log into your personal iPhone, these would be considered two separate Apple IDs and would not be synced across both devices. Apple IDs (and iCloud Keychain) only recognise the same user details.

If you're using the same Apple ID and your iCloud Keychain is synced across each of your Apple devices, it means that any passkeys saved to the iCloud Keychain will work on any of your Apple devices, regardless of which one you're using to log into Cliniko.

But, if you have two different Apple IDs, any passkeys you set up (on any website, not just Cliniko) will be saved only to the iCloud Keychain associated with the Apple ID on the device you're using at that time.

If your Apple ID for your work computer is my-name@work.com, but your Apple ID for your personal iPhone and your personal MacBook is my-name@home.com, these are considered two entirely separate user profiles. Even though they're both "you", because you set them up, iCloud Keychain doesn't know this. So if you set up a passkey on your work computer and it's saved to your work Apple ID, that same passkey will not work on your personal iPhone and MacBook or any other devices you have set up under your personal Apple ID.

For the easiest use of passkeys across all of your Apple devices, there are some important things you will need to make sure of:

You will also need to make sure that you have the latest version of iOS or iPadOS, and the latest version of macOS. Passkeys will not work properly unless your devices are updated to the most recent operating systems.

If you're not sure whether or not you're signed into each of your devices with the same Apple ID, Apple has some instructions on how to check for this here. You will be able to see a list of each device that's linked to your Apple ID, and this means that passkeys should work on each of these devices.

First things first, you will need to make sure that all of the steps in the above section have been covered—everything is synced and updated.

Then, when logged into Cliniko, go into the My info section and press the Create a passkey button:

Enter your Cliniko password to verify your identity:

Ideally, you should see a pop-up that says "Use Touch ID to sign in?" and asks for your fingerprint, and says the passkey will be saved in iCloud Keychain and available on all of your devices:

You will then have the option to give this passkey a name, but it will default to "iCloud Keychain"—you can leave like this if you want, to help you remember this is the passkey for your Apple ID/iCloud Keychain credentials:

In a perfect world, you'd have no issue saving your passkeys to iCloud Keychain. However, because passkeys have a lot of variables that are dependent on many things—your device, operating system, and browser—you might find that when trying to save your passkey, it doesn't automatically save to iCloud Keychain. Below are some of the more common weird edge cases you might experience:

If you use Google Chrome as your browser or have an Android phone in addition to an Apple computer, you might see that when setting up a passkey on your Apple device, it asks you to save it to Google Password Manager. This is Chrome's and Andriod's built-in security feature, similar to iCloud Keychain being Apple's.

If this happens, you would see a pop-up asking you to create a passkey to save to Google Password Manager:

If you don't want to do this, press Save another way:

This will ask you where you want to save your passkey. Select iCloud Keychain:

This will show a pop-up that asks you to use Touch ID to sign in, and says that your passkey will be saved in iCloud Keychain and available on all devices, as long as iCloud Keychain is set up and synced across all of your Apple devices:

When you continue with Touch ID, you'll be able to save the passkey in iCloud Keychain. It will look like this when saved:

You can also still save another passkey in Google Password Manager if you'd like, but you will need to complete the setup process again and opt for Google Password Manager as the desired place to save the passkey.

Let's say you use an Apple computer at work, but you have an Android phone. You've already set up a passkey for Cliniko on your Android, but now you're trying to set one up under your Apple ID. You might get a pop-up that looks like this:

If you see this, it means that the sign-in page is asking for the passkey from your other device, where it's already been set up in a different operating system/browser (i.e. Google Password Manager), and you're using Google Chrome as your main browser on your Apple computer.

Where it asks for the "screen lock" and "PIN", that's the code used to unlock the phone itself. When you enter that, you will be automatically logged into your Cliniko account, and that passkey will also be saved to your Apple computer's built-in security facilities as something the computer "remembers" to prompt for when signing in. However, it will be saved as a passkey for that operating system/browser—in this case, Google Password Manager—so it's not the same as saving an iCloud Keychain passkey.

It does mean, though, that you can now log into Cliniko using your Android/Google Password Manager passkey on your Apple computer.

If you haven't already set up a passkey specifically for Apple iCloud Keychain on this computer, you will still need to do that. Within your account's Passkeys settings, press the Create a passkey button:

It may try to ask you to save to Google Password Manager once again, but ignore that. Follow the instructions outlined above to save the passkey a different way, and you will be able to save it to iCloud Keychain.

We also have a a similar article here that outlines this situation, so feel free to have a look at that. If you're still stuck, our support team is here to help!