Could not load Internet Accounts preference pane.

Question

Could not load Internet Accounts preference pane.

Starting a few days ago, I became unable to access my email account through Mac Mail. I would be continuously asked for my password, and would be told that my password was invalid. I am able to access my email through webmail and my phone. This evening, I attempted to fix the problem by rebooting my Mac. Upon logging in, I was given the following error message: Could not load Internet Accounts preference pane. A few weeks ago, I had a similar error message from the Time Machine preference pane. I was able to correct that by deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist and logging out. However, I tried that same fix a few minutes ago, and it didn't work. I am still not able to access my email through Mac Mail. Any assistance would be appreciated.

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jan 23, 2020 4:04 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

AntonyFromWatertown Author

Level 1

42 points

Jan 29, 2020 2:59 AM in response to BDAqua

It looks like my ISP changed a few settings at their end, without bothering to tell anybody that they made changes, or what they changed. Through trial and error, I managed to figure out what I needed to do at my end to get it to work. The first thing I did was call their tech support, only to be told that they don't officially support Apple desktop products. Thank you for the help.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 23, 2020 5:34 PM in response to AntonyFromWatertown

Hi Anthony,

Sounding a bit like The Hard Drive is starting to fail, do you have a backup?

On the Internet Accounts preference pane...

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

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Answer 3

Jan 24, 2020 3:53 AM in response to BDAqua

It does work on the new account. Interestingly enough, after a reboot, when I logged back into my old account, I had access to the Internet Accounts preference pane once again. However, I still do not have access to my email through Mac mail.

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Answer 4

Jan 27, 2020 4:26 PM in response to BDAqua

There are no red dots. There was a green dot, SMTP, and "Connection to server and login succeeded"

After I clicked Show Details and checked again, there was a whole slew of messages in the window:

INITIATING CONNECTION Jan 27 19:22:51.234 host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x0 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.264 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

DONE

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.446 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

22.80 OK IDLE Terminated (took 1 ms)

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.451 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

23.80 CHECK

CONNECTED Jan 27 19:22:51.578 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.578 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

+OK InterMail POP3 server ready.

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.628 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

23.80 OK CHECK completed (took 2 ms)

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.628 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

24.80 STATUS INBOX (MESSAGES UIDNEXT UIDVALIDITY UNSEEN HIGHESTMODSEQ)

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.633 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

CAPA

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.689 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

+OK Capability list follows

TOP

USER

RESP_CODES

PIPELINING

EXPIRE NEVER

UIDL

IMPLEMENTATION Openwave Email vM.9.01.00.037.1 201-2473-137-122-172

.

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.690 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

USER antony.serio

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.756 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

+OK please send PASS command

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.756 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

PASS ****************

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.811 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

* STATUS "INBOX" (MESSAGES 0 UIDNEXT 1 UIDVALIDITY 0 UNSEEN 0 HIGHESTMODSEQ 0)

24.80 OK STATUS completed (took 3 ms)

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:51.822 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

25.80 STATUS "Sent Messages" (MESSAGES UIDNEXT UIDVALIDITY UNSEEN HIGHESTMODSEQ)

READ Jan 27 19:22:51.828 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:mail.twc.com -- port:995 -- socket:0x7fff024c2e80 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

-ERR invalid user name or password.

READ Jan 27 19:22:52.000 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff024ef0a0

* STATUS "Sent Messages" (MESSAGES 0 UIDNEXT 1 UIDVALIDITY 2 UNSEEN 0 HIGHESTMODSEQ 0)

25.80 OK STATUS completed (took 3 ms)

WROTE Jan 27 19:22:52.013 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

26.80 IDLE

READ Jan 27 19:22:52.194 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:p35-imap.mail.me.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x7fff005bb630 -- thread:0x7fff020356a0

+ idling

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 27, 2020 5:14 PM in response to AntonyFromWatertown

ERR invalid user name or password.

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.

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Answer 6

Jan 28, 2020 3:46 AM in response to BDAqua

In my keychain, there were half a dozen items. All were between eight and ten years old, and as far as I could tell, they all had the same password. I deleted all of them, and created a new one, using the same password as before. I made it an internet password, and gave all of my applications access to it. However, I am still unable to use the mail app, even after rebooting.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 28, 2020 10:25 AM in response to AntonyFromWatertown

To access your Rr.com email account from a desktop email program, you'll need the IMAP and SMTP settings below:

Rr.com (RoadRunner/TWC) IMAP Server mail.twc.com

IMAP port 993

IMAP security SSL / TLS

IMAP username Your full email address

IMAP password Your Rr.com password

Rr.com (RoadRunner/TWC) SMTP Server mail.twc.com

SMTP port 587

SMTP security STARTTLS

SMTP username Your full email address

SMTP password Your Rr.com password

The receiving email ports are:

IMAP is port 143

IMAP-SSL is port 993

POP is port 110

POP-SSL is port 995

Outgoing ports are...

SMTP and SMTP-SSL is on ports 25, 587 and 465. Port 587 has to be SSL, and port 465 is enforced TLS-wrapped and is generally used by Outlook users.

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Answer 8

Feb 6, 2020 10:36 AM in response to Lilblazer66

I tried creating a new email account. Once I entered my email address and password, the new account started working. I then copied the information from the new account verbatim over to the old one, and it started working as well. It’s been working ever since. Last week my phone email began flaking out. I had to re-enter my password, then it began working. When I was on the phone with twcny tech support, I was told that they were de-supporting POP accounts and wanted everyone to switch over to IMAP. That’s what I was trying to do when I set up the new account.

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