Mail app will not open browser to put in password so I can turn my email account to online mode

taragracew wrote:

My mail app has two accounts linked to it. The account that I actively use is set to offline. I understand I need to change this to send emails, but when I hit the lightening bolt next to the email address in the side bar, it asks me to enter the password for authentication. When I hit the blue open browser button, I am stuck on a loading box screen with a loading sign spinning. It doesn't change or send me to the browser to put in my password. The same thing happens when I go through Internet Accounts from system preferences. Please help me fix this

Verify you have Safari set as the default browser and try again.

Unfortunately this doesn't do it for me. Safari is my standard and only browser installed, yet the loading symbol keeps spinning and nothing is happening. Now some of my email accounts do not load new emails. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

The passwords for you email accounts are stored in keychain in the utilities folder. Also if enabled in iCloud Drive. Is your email account something like gmail and not through your internet provider? I understood everything till the part about the blue button for your browser.If a mailbox is offline in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Thank you, @leroydouglas, for me this fixed it.

This is interesting, because I've never had Safari as my default browser and so far, I've ran into this issue. So I guess this must be a current bug. However, with this workaround it worked.

Is your email account thru you internet server or an online account such as Google Gmail? You could go to mail preferences accounts and delete then re-add the account. If it will not let you thru the listed accounts try using the add other accounts. Google has to be authenticated. As do some others.

https://appletoolbox.com/gmail-login-and-authentication-problems-with-apple-mail-try-these-tips/

What helped was to first completely quit Safari, then the browser opened as it should. Before that I also deleted the account and was adding it again, but I think that's not necessary.

Now I even can't reply because "Your post could not be saved. Please try again in a few moments.". Apple can do HW, but its SW really sucks. Will be trying again..

The solution is to temporarily change your default browser to Chome (System Preferences > General > Default Web Browser). Then try it again while having Chrome set as default. For some reason, Safari can have problems using google's mail portal in Apple Mail.

This worked for me, as well.

In mail, when I tried to take a Gmail account online, a pop-up opened, saying I needed to authenticate my account, but the window was empty, and the "Open Browser" button was grayed out. Quitting and restarting Mail didn't help. But when I simply launched Safari manually (it had not been running), the first thing to open was a Gmail login pop-up, and I was able to login, and then my Gmail account was active in Mail.

Ran into the same issue... it's infuriating. I think it may be an issue with Chrome.

I changed my default browser to Safari in my System Settings > General, and it popped up and I could access my email with no problems.

The solution is to temporarily change your default browser to Chome (System Preferences > General > Default Web Browser). Then try it again while having Chrome set as default. For some reason, Safari can have problems using google's mail portal in Apple Mail.

I did this but it was already set to Chrome, which didn't work. So I then set it to Firefox because Safari is, and always has been, the worst, most featureless browser in the history of the WWW. Even worse than IE if that's possible. Guess what. When I again tried to enter my password in the dialog box, the friggin' thing opened in Safari! At least I could enter my credentials and get the account back online. I changed the default back to Chrome immediately after that. I never use Safari and would uninstall it if I could and didn't need it for stupidities like this one. Apple HW good, Apple software, the worst. I liked it much better before when I could do everything directly from the Mail app.

I had google Chrome and also Safari open in my dock. I quit out of both browsers.

then I went to mail and clicked on the lightning bolt icon on my disconnected account and it opened a safari pop up - i think the key is having all internet browsers closed when you try and open the pop up.

x

This may help:

Google requires completing authentication in your web browser. (Apple Mail and Calendar, macOS Monterey) - ASC – Solved

Cannot add Google account - ASC - Solutions

Quitting and restarting Safari worked for me.

If you open Safari manually, it should open to the Google login page, or at least it did for me on Monterrey.