"Unable to verify account name or password" on adding me.com account to mac

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Level 2

234 points

"Unable to verify account name or password" on adding me.com account to mac

Hey folks,

Odd thing here.

I'm unable to add my me.com account to my M1 Macbook air running Monterey (I haven't upgraded to Ventura yet as this is a production machine and I usually wait until the .1 release of a new macOS on production machines).

I've owned this machine for about a year now and never managed to set up the me.com account on it.

The account works fine on other devices (two older macs and a few recent iPhones up to the iPhone 12), but upon adding it to Apple Mail on the M1 Macbook Air it throws an error: "Unable to verify account name or password". To be clear: I am using the right password; I've verified this endlessly.

A quick search on these forums brings up a solution: enter the account details, cancel out of the error and note that the password field is now empty. Enter the password and TAB out of the password field instead of clicking the button. Apparently this circumvents a known bug.

This, however, assumes that you have the account on your mac. And here lies the problem: this account isn't on my machine so I can't get to that screen. The screen you get when entering a new account is a different one and the "TAB" workaround doesn't appear to work there.

I've done a few things already, all fruitless of course:

I tried to be smart and entered the account manually (by going through the automated me.com setup, then removing the lines "Automatically set up for iOS and Mac OS X" in the incoming and outgoing servers and replacing them with the mobileMe server of ye'old) which does bring up the right screen mentioned in the workaround, but the error prevails.
I deleted all the references to the me.com account from iCloud Key Chain and the local keychain cache on the mac in question.
I've set up and removed the me.com account from the accounts preference pane in System Preferences.

I'm stuck. Sure, I can access the me.com account on pretty much every other Apple device in my house, but not on the one that counts (my M1 MacBook Air).

Does anyone have a solution?

Cheers,

Erwin

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Nov 6, 2022 2:38 AM

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Answer 1

PRP_53

Level 10

85,015 points

Nov 14, 2022 1:37 AM in response to E Leerentveld

iCloud: About your @icloud.com, @me.com and @mac.com email addresses

The above may not solve this issue but provide some background on the mac.com, me.com and icloud.com domains used over the years for this Apple e-mail domain Servers

An side - have all there domain as Reachable in AppleID account

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Answer 2

E Leerentveld Author

Level 2

234 points

Nov 13, 2022 10:43 PM in response to Barney-15E

Hi Barney,

The situation is as follows:

So, yes, both the iCloud and the Me.com accounts start with

The me.com address does not appear under "reachable at" under system preferences on macOS, and not under the equivalent setting on iOS either (which is to be expected).

I've never changed my AppleID, but I have changed the email address that I use to log into AppleID a few years ago (well after MobileMe was phased out).

So, in short:

me.com address doesn't appear under Reachable at
me.com inbox is accessible on iOS and older macs running Catalina and Mojave.
me.com inbox is not accessible on M1 Mac running Monterey

If you have any advice left, it'd be appreciated :)

Cheers,

Erwin

[Email Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 3

E Leerentveld Author

Level 2

234 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:06 PM in response to Barney-15E

Hi Barney,

Sorry for the late reply; a lot going on here.

I'm a bit confused about the line between an AppleID and the me.com account.

My AppleID has a different email address entirely (completely different domain). I also have an iCloud email address which was handed out to me when MobileMe became iCloud.

I'm currently logged in with the same AppleID on all my devices (the one that's on a completely different domain) and I have access to my iCloud.com email address on all devices too. It's just the me.com one that's acting up on this one mac.

Cheers,

Erwin

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,776 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:41 PM in response to E Leerentveld

I'm a bit confused about the line between an AppleID and the me.com account.

My AppleID has a different email address entirely (completely different domain). I also have an iCloud email address which was handed out to me when MobileMe became iCloud.

I'm currently logged in with the same AppleID on all my devices (the one that's on a completely different domain) and I have access to my iCloud.com email address on all devices too. It's just the me.com one that's acting up on this one mac.

The email used as a username for your AppleID has nothing to do with it.

Are they both the same iCloud (AppleID) account, or are they different accounts.

Log into AppleID.Apple.com and select Personal Information > Reachable At.

Is your old me.com address in that list? If not, is a different AppleID that created that me.com email account.

It may be that you need to log into AppleID using the AppleID attached to that me.com account and create an App-Specific password for Mail as it is not the account you sign into on that Mac.

If it is a different AppleID account, it may not be possible to add another iCloud account directly into Mail. You may have to add the iCloud account into Internet Accounts, then enable the Mail function (and any others you want from that account).

The MobileMe email servers do not exist anymore, so trying to log into those won't work.

If that email address came from MobileMe, then you should also be able to use the same @iCloud.com email address. There used to be a @Mac.com domain, but they retired it. If the two accounts are the same, then username part of the iCloud.com and me.com email addresses will be the same.

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