my mac mail will not connect to my aol account

Hi Eric. I really don't understand your answer. I ended up calling Apple Support. Via screen share, Tyrone saw that I correctly followed the steps to add the aol account, but that I kept getting this same message: "Unable to verify account name or password". Tyrone, suggested that I upgrade to Mojave (from High Sierra). That ended up resolving the issue with the aol mail. Now my Spectrum email isn't working!!! Ugh!

As soon as AOL mail linked to my apple mail, the spectrum account went offline. I answered you at that point. Sorry my frustration with 3rd party emails was evident. I ended up exiting mail, then reopening it, which didn't work. So I shut down and restarted my computer. That linked the spectrum mail back up. Right now they are both working (as is my iCloud mail). I just don't want to start having glitchy behavior now by having both of these emails on my apple mail.

In speaking with an apple support representative (via a prior scheduled call back from the initial aol issue) I was told that aol may not be the most secure free email (since it has been hacked a few times) and that probably gmail is the most secure free email available. Also, there typically are not linking issues between gmail and apple mail. So, for now, I will switch to gmail. I had no issues linking gmail to apple mail and my spectrum email is still working.

Thank you for reaching out again to ensure my issue was resolved.

it is a brand new aol email account. It won’t set up at all so there is nothing to delete. When I try to add the aol account to Mac mail it says it’s unable to verify account and password.

Do I have to somehow manually add the aol account? How do I get to the are where I can change the IMAP settings so Mac mail can read and link to the aol account?

Thank you for your help!!