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User profile for user: Blortman
Blortman Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Apple Mail application on MacOS keeps asking for the password of a deleted account

The MacOS Mail application keeps asking me to enter the password of a mail account I deleted years ago.


Let's call the account "foo.com" Every few minutes, a dialog pops up that says, "Can't connect to the account 'foo.com'" I used to have a foo.com mail account, but I deleted it years ago. There is no foo.com account listed in Settings -> Internet Accounts (which I get to by choosing Mail -> Accounts..." in the Mail application.)


I am running 12.2.1.


(If I enter a random sequence of letters, it says "Unable to verify account name or password.")


How do I get Mail to forget about this long-deleted account?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Feb 23, 2022 9:07 AM

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User profile for user: Tesserax
Tesserax
User level: Level 10
148,453 points

Posted on Feb 23, 2022 9:54 AM

A few things you can try:

  • Before running the Mail app, hold down the <shift> key, and then, double-click on the app. This should temporarily disable any email accounts from being accessed. Do you still get the password prompt?
  • It may still be possible that, even though you deleted this email account, that one of its server settings is still configured in the Mail app. Go to: Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information. You can select any account in this case. Then go to Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP). From the drop-down menu, select Edit SMTP server list. See if the deleted account server is listed there. If so, delete it.
  • Finally, if neither of those helped, the Mail app's preference plist file is located at: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist If you want to proceed with this step, first exit the Mail app. You now have the option to copy this file to your Mac's Desktop (as a backup) BEFORE deleting it. Note that this file will rebuild itself the next time you start the app. However, be aware that you will loose all of your app's settings and will need to re-set them back up.
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User profile for user: Tesserax
Tesserax
User level: Level 10
148,453 points

Feb 23, 2022 9:54 AM in response to Blortman

A few things you can try:

  • Before running the Mail app, hold down the <shift> key, and then, double-click on the app. This should temporarily disable any email accounts from being accessed. Do you still get the password prompt?
  • It may still be possible that, even though you deleted this email account, that one of its server settings is still configured in the Mail app. Go to: Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information. You can select any account in this case. Then go to Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP). From the drop-down menu, select Edit SMTP server list. See if the deleted account server is listed there. If so, delete it.
  • Finally, if neither of those helped, the Mail app's preference plist file is located at: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist If you want to proceed with this step, first exit the Mail app. You now have the option to copy this file to your Mac's Desktop (as a backup) BEFORE deleting it. Note that this file will rebuild itself the next time you start the app. However, be aware that you will loose all of your app's settings and will need to re-set them back up.
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Apple Mail application on MacOS keeps asking for the password of a deleted account

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