random password request in mail

It shouldn't be a random popup; it should be Mail asking you to enter the password for the account. If that's the case, there is a checkbox on that window for saving the password in your Keychain; check that box and it shouldn't happen again, unless your Keychain becomes corrupted or Mail forgets where it is.

Mulder

I've had similar problems. What worked for me was going into the Keychain application, located in the Utilities folder. In the upper left column, highlight "log-in." In the lower left column, highlight "passwords." In the right window scroll until you find your "mail.comcast.net and smtp.comcast.net" or whatever your internet service provider incoming/outgoing mail servers are called. Double click on each which will bring up an attributes/access control window. Select access control. Then select the bullet next to "allow all applications to access this item." Make sure you do this for both the incoming server (mail.comcast.net) and outgoing server (smtp.comcast.net) keychain items.
Don't know why it works but I haven't had to reenter passwords every time I launch mail. Also, I would check with your internet service provider and ensure you're using the correct incoming and outgoing server ports.
Hope that works for you.

Like many others, I have had the same password problems and finally decided to switch to Entourage mail which I don't like as well as apple mail, but i don't get this password mess. However, I will try going into keychain and trying the suggested fix. I hope it works because I refuse to enter my passwords again because they are sitting in Keychain already.

My first try did not work but what I did was delete all my email passwords, went back to Apple mail and re-entered my passwords, Then, went into Keychain and gave Apple Mail and Entourage permission to use keychain and now, it all works and I no longer get that enter password message. Whew! I did not like Entourage as well as Apple Mail, I will go back to your post and mark it as solved.

Bea

How do I give you points for solving this????

You can't, because n2thinair did not start the topic.

Mulder

Thanks. But that doesn't seem quite fair.