Mail account problem

This might be worth a try. Go to Mail/ Preferences/ Accounts/ Server Settings. If the password fields are blank, enter your email account password in both the Incoming and Outgoing Mail Server password fields.

Hi jaynefromnaples,

I am also having a problem with Mail but a different email provider and issue than you are having.

1) I can't work out who your email account is with. Presumably its not an apple account (@mac.com, @icloud.com). You mention Spectrum Wifi and write that the webmail version is working where you log in to their online system, but I don't know where the Wifi comes in to that. Do you have to manually enter your email address and password to use their webmail, or are these being automatically entered for you in webmail and on your iPad? I am trying to establish how certain you are of your password (i.e. have you manually confirmed it anywhere).

2) Do you have a backup (e.g. TimeMachine) you can restore your previous working account from?

3) It sounds as though you have managed to delete your email account on the Macbook Air. When you try and re-create it, at which stage of re-creation does it fail and what is the failure message?

Thank goodness you can still access your email by logging in to webmail and on your iPad!

Did this happen following the most recent update to 10.14.4, if so a few are reporting Mail issues and not just with Gmail (Authentication loop).

I lost the ability to send on both my ISP POP account and iCloud but like you Incoming was fine, that pointed to the smtp server side of things.

In the end I turned off iCloud Mail under iCloud System Preferences and then deleted my ISP account, rebooted and then added back my ISP account. Before re-enabling iCloud Mail I confirmed the ISP account was sending and receiving ok. Strangely when re-enabling iCloud I had difficulty selecting the server under the appropriate Mail Preferences Server tab, it was as though it didn’t want to “stick”!

Sometimes when adding a Mail Account via macOS (and iOS) although the process starts ok it can stumble towards the end when trying to confirm the servers. When that happens you have to then enter the server section tab and just make sure the various settings for port, ssl and authentication are correct (you get them from your ISP or mail service).

Basically, when adding an account it sometimes starts with the automatic process but ends with manual “tweaking”, if you know what I mean.

Ignore this duplicate post, forum playing tricks.

That’s a good article but you shouldn’t have to mess about in Finder to get this issue sorted. Just get all the settings from your mail provider and then go into Mail Preferences and check they are correct under the Server tab.

Another “sticking” point can be with the “Authentication” section , make sure it’s “Password” and you then have a box to enter said password. Authentication can apply to Outgoing and Incoming servers so you have to check it’s entered under both if your mail service requires it.

I’ve never found an easy way of doing all this in macOS Mail, Snow Leopard was the last OS I ran that setup my mail accounts faultlessly, ever since all OS’s have stumbled at some point, I always thought was to do with POP but with recent issues I’m not sure that it’s not in fact Mail itself.

Also, these settings are only accessed when you untick “Automatically manage connection settings”, and again that is for Incoming and Outgoing sections under the “Server Settings” tab (see pic in fuzzymo post).

Not sure how else to help via forum, if it was my issue I would book a Genius appointment.

You have a laptop so easily transported, go to your nearest Apple Store and get “them” to resolve, ie get them to setup your mail account(s), don’t worry about machine warranty, this is software related and linked to latest macOS updated, ie only a week or so old.

Worth a try.

This link might be useful.

https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/adding-new-account-apple-mail/?redirected=true