Mail will not authenticate an AOL account

You can use:

mail.aol.com

with a web browser until you sort out the mail.app in your Mac.

Aso see this:

https://help.aol.com/articles/how-do-i-use-other-email-applications-to-send-and-receive-my-aol-mail

I am sorry to hear about your frustration. Unfortunately I do not have a solution, but I have read here about a number of problems with using Mail with AOL. I suggest first contacting AOL to troubleshoot the issue. They should be willing to work with you. Second, if it can't be resolved, my suggestion is to migrate to another email app such as Thunderbird, which I like. It is not my intention to bad mouth Mail, but I gave up on it years ago. Just one man's opinion, for what it's worth. Maybe someone else will have something better to suggest. Good luck.

I have had a Mac for years. It has always worked fine with AOL, one of my main email accounts. Recently, I purchased a new Mac machine. It is four WEEKS old. This "Latest and greatest" Mac will not authenticate my AOL mail account. I transferred from my old Mac to new Mac. I tried starting in "Recovery." Nothing works. I find Catalina to be incompatible with several applications that I have used for years; but not being able to easily, "One-button-click" read my email is probably most aggravating.

By the way, the answer is NOT to say, "Sign on to aol.com and read your mail there." <---- THAT is not a solution to a problem that is obviously a problem stemming from APPLE. Will there be a more "Universally friendly" version/update to Catalina coming out, so that Catalina will interface with other apps without problems??

Thank you,

Frustrated in Southern California

(Ironically, where Catalina Island is located...)