Apple Mail Won't Add Comcast Email Accounts

Hey there, Brian,

Thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities. I understand from your post that you're having trouble adding two Comcast email accounts to your Mac. I'm happy to help!

Based on what you've described, I would recommend first quitting the Mail app: Quit apps on Mac - Apple Support then restarting your Mac: How to turn your Mac on or off - Apple Support. Then, make sure you have the correct information for your email accounts from Comcast: Mail settings you might need from your email provider - Apple Support. Mail Settings Lookup may help you find those settings.

If you still need help, try adding the accounts in safe mode: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support, and a test user account: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support.

Have a wonderful weekend.

I have the same problem adding any email accounts to any mail client including Thunderbird. Something in Catalina appears to be blocking the verification process. Just like Brian, my emails worked OK up until recently so I deleted them and now cannot get them to work. I have done a restore of an earlier backup from before I deleted the accounts and this hasn't worked as Mail is constantly asking for passwords and me getting the same response every time, "Unable to verify account name or password". I have just finished doing a complete new install of Catalina from scratch after deleting everything, and this hasn't worked either, and I now have the fun task of reinstalling all of the software and settings from the latest backup I had.

I have tried everything suggested by MoonJ above and the problem still persists. My Email accounts are from BT & Hotmail. The iCloud is still active as I didn't delete that one as it was still working OK. I originally had everything working after updating to Catalina from Mojave.

I have now somehow managed to get BT Email working in Mail and Thunderbird, but my iCloud account has stopped working in Thunderbird. Same message when entering password, "unable to verify account name or password".

Sorry, somehow sorted it.

Open Keychain Access in Utilities, then either check the Password under that item, change it, or delete it and start over.

Enter the part after the @sign in the search bar.

You may have duplicate or more entries in Keychain Access.

If using a browser to login via WebMail works it's not Name or Password, but likely old passwords interfering.

There''ll be at least 2 entries, maybe more.

The trouble is that Mac Mail almost always chooses the old Passwords if you don't change or get rid of the old ones.

What ports & Authentication are you using?

I changed all the passwords on the online email servers, rebooted my iMac, went in changed them all again then attempted to add, and they all added without a problem.

So, does that mean it's fixed now?

And you're using these settings?

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email