Why does OS X Mail ALWAYS ask for my password

Does Pacbell provide webmail? That would allow you to test if the problem is indeed with the password you are using, the account you are accessing, or with the mail software you are connecting with. Process of elimination may be one way to determine what is at issue here.

I have run keychain first aid on both computers, and it came back w/ no problems. I actually ran it twice just to make sure.
Pacbell does offer web access, and that works fine, and my password is not the problem, it is that Mail does not want to remember it. I have it set to check every 5min. and it always pops up asking for my password. This is recent as it was working fine until about 3 weeks ago.

Me and you are having the same exact problem. In fact my problems started about the same time as you. I wonder if there some sort of security update about three weeks ago.

But, yeah Keychain First Aid came back fine, and I too set my check to 5mins. It's not a big problem, but it's a very annoying one.

Same here. I go to Mailbox->Online Status->Take "<mailboxName>" Online and the mailbox is back Online without typing in the password. I wish Mail would just try to login to the server again instead of prompting for a password. It is obviously not a keychain problem. The mail server is busy or hickup'ed or whatever. Just wait for the next automatic check time, and try again.

Power Mac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

In addition to take the Mailbox online (or just all Mailboxes, with 'Connect to Internet') I quit and restarted Mail.

I use Mail since almost 2 years as main and only mail reader on my PB. Have 8 different account at 4 different providers and read e-mails each minute.

Some times, could be once a week, accounts belonging to ONE provider begin to ask for password - I do not enter the password, just cancel dialog (in this moment Mail stops checking for that account and wave sign appears against that account in mailbox area).

Later, clicking on the wave symbol initiates again account reading and the result could be everything is OK, or again password is asked, in which case I cancel dialog until next try.

In my practice the problem disappeared typically after a couple of minutes, max. couple of hours.

What I observed:

- the behavior is not related to any software updates on my PB
- Behavior is provider dependent, for example, have two GMX accounts and they show this problem each time during some short period late in the night
- It IS NOT PASSWORD problem in reality, it has been never needed to enter AGAING password
- Problem disappears without any special action from my side.

Some times ago I had a second computer (MacOS9) checking independently same accounts with Entourage, also once a minute. On accounts of two providers only, during reading a big e-mails on MacOS9 computer (account is busy/locked during that time), I discovered Ask for Password problem with Mail program for the first time, after big e-mail was already read, the problem disappeared.

From my understanding the problem is related to Mail's handling of busy/locked accounts and possibly servers during e-mail read.

Whereas Entourage CONTINUES to try after reaching busy/locked conditions (error is just logged) and eventually reads successfully next time, Mail STOPS reading e-mail and waits for user action (clicking on wave symbol, for example), which is annoying

Ditto, here. I'm an SBC Yahoo customer and this issue began just recently perhaps coinciding w/recent update. Keychain First Aid showed no problem. It is annoying. I have Mail set to check every 15 minutes. I will wait for further wisdom to percolate from this discussion.

I'm also with Pacbell (and have been since the week they started offering DSL) Yesterday my Pacbell mail account just went grey and quit receiving or sending or anything. A rep on the phone said that beginning yesterday SBC was having issues with Safari. Another SBC rep (IM) tonight said (probably from Bangaladesh?) that perhaps I need to re-load Safari because it might be corrupted. Haven't tried that yet.

I'm really without a clue at this point.

Rod

Some of these suggestions make some sense. I have had this keychain password problem for at least a year. It is persistant on Mail and on several different websites. I have updated the OS from original OS X to Panther and reloaded Panther twice, the last time erasing the hard drive first. I have done all the recommendations on keychain repair, although nothing was noted to need repair.

My laptop PC (Outlook) accesses these same mail servers without any problem or requiring re-entering passwords. This problem is so persistant that I am actually gaining a fondness to Windows XP, which as yet is remarkably stable.

I am wondering if both of my computers happen to check the same email account at the same time, it might cause the problem I am experiencing.

I am disappointed that with so many comments on this problem there seems to be no fix from Apple.

This problem is absurd.

My mother's iMac is now constantly asking her for her password for her sbcglobal account and she can't understand what is wrong since she keeps typing in the correct password into Mail.

This is a simple problem where Mail is incorrectly handling communicating with the sbcglobal mail servers. The engineer(s) working on Mail should be able to fix this problem easily and have an update tested and released in days if they cared to do so.

Get your act together Apple!

Someone from Apple needs to respond to this huge thread. I bought an iMac for my mother so I wouldn't have to deal with stupid problems like this one. I could just give her a Linux box for half the price or less of her iMac.

Add my name to the growing list of people having password problems with Mail. I too am an sbcglobal account holder and as in a previous post the problem started for me about three weeks ago. I too have tried all the "fixes" with Keychain and the other suggestions in various posts and they are of no help whatsoever. I agree Apple needs to hear from us all and do something about the problem!

Add me to the list also. NEVER had a problem while using OS 9, another computer here running Panther NEVER has problems.

Since I bought the new iMac G5 running Tiger, it asks for my password about 70% of the time it checks. I have it check the mail every 5 minutes.

I'm also an sbcglobal/ yahoo user.

This is not a Tiger only problem-I'm using Panther 10.3.9. It is also an intermittant problem. I have had no incidents today at all and yesterday I was being asked for my password about every third time Mail tried to connect to my account.