There was an error in Internet Accounts preferences.

Hi rickgoo,

Thank you for the post! I understand you're having some issues when you try signing in to your Exchange account, but your iCloud and Gmail accounts work as expected. Being able to access your accounts, is always important, and I'm happy to see if I can help.

When you say you're prompted to enter your password but can't, what exactly happens?

As a starting point, I suggest booting your Mac into safe mode. This runs a few checks and then prevents certain items from loading, so this will help to rule out a few possible software causes. Here's how: How to use safe mode on your Mac

Once you reach your desktop in safe mode, test it out to see if this helps. Then click Apple menu () > Restart to get back to normal. Feel free to reply back here with the results of testing in safe mode.

Have a good one.

The following solution fixed my problem with a "stuck" Exchange account that couldn't be deleted and recreated.

https://www.telnetport25.com/2020/04/macos-catalina-there-was-an-error-in-internet-accounts-preferences/#comment-132925

It only took a minute to download the SQLLite client and fix the Mail database. Very elegant solution to the problem without having to mess around with .plst files are screw up your other mail accounts.

John.

I'm also having the same problem after I upgraded from Mavericks to Catalina. When I click the notification to reenter my exchange password, it opens Internet Accounts in Systems Preferences. When I click the Exchange account, I also get the "There was an error in Internet Accounts preferences" message.

Thanks John! This worked for me too.

Yes thank you John! That solved it.

I had this happen to mine but can't get the internet accounts to get past the sign in screen.