Deleted email account keeps being added back!

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Level 1

9 points

Deleted email account keeps being added back!

I have a (google) email account that I want to delete from my Macs. When I remove it from one Mac, it asks me if I want to remove it from all computers using keychain, to which I respond 'remove from all'.

A few minutes later I get a notification that the same email address has been added back!

Even when I manually remove it from all the devices, it gets added back to them all.

I've set the email account to 'inactive' but I'd still like to kill it properly!

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jul 15, 2021 1:55 AM

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Answer 1

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Jul 16, 2021 7:00 AM in response to ghodseh

Hi ghodseh,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities.

We understand you can't remove an email account from your Mac and we're happy to help! To help isolate and resolve this issue let's follow the steps below and check to see if the problem is still there after each one:

1. Quit Mail app and System Preferences app and reopen apps:

2. Restart your Mac: Log out, sleep, wake, restart, or shut down your Mac

3. Back up your Mac: How to back up your Mac and Update macOS on Mac

4. Turn off iCloud Keychain and turn on iCloud Keychain:

See also

Add or remove email accounts in Mail on Mac

We hope this helps.

Take care.

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Answer 2

steve626

Level 6

13,545 points

Aug 21, 2021 9:56 AM in response to ghodseh

Try first removing the account from System Preferences Internet Accounts, then try removing it from Mail in Preferences there.

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Answer 3

ghodseh Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 21, 2021 12:04 PM in response to steve626

Sadly that doesn't work...removing it from one (e.g. System preference) removes it automatically from Mail (and from Keychain Access): it disappears simultaneously from all 3, and then reappears moments later.

If I disable iCloud syncing of keychain, the account remains absent, but reappears as soon as I re-enable keychain sync with iCloud.

With iCloud Keychain access enabled, MacOs does tell me it will delete the account from my other devices - but clearly somehow it is being retained somewhere in iCloud nonetheless and is being resynced :-(

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Answer 4

ghodseh Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 21, 2021 8:43 AM in response to chris_g1

Hi Chris.

Thanks for that.

Sadly the issue remains after each of those steps.

If I open up KeyChain access - I can see the item in there with a name 'com.apple.account.Google.accountsync' in the iCloud Keychain. Even if I delete (or even edit) the entry in Keychain - from what should be iCloud - it reappears 10-30 seconds later.

It's super-frustrating...

H

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Deleted email account keeps being added back!

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