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constantly asked for mail passwords on MacBook Air

About 5 days ago I started getting constant pop ups asking for mail passwords. I am on Sonoma 14. I have deleted both accounts and re-entered them several times. Tried restarting Mac both before and after doing this. There were no issues before this. The passwords are correct. It seems to accept the passwords, then 10 minutes later I get another pop up. I do not get this problem on iPhone or iPad. It is driving me demented. My passwords for mail are not saved on the password vault on the system. There is no option for Outlook or Hotmail on the add new account list- should I be entering them on the Microsoft Option? Would that make any difference? Mail gets through but I am still asked for password. Can anyone help?

MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Posted on Jan 25, 2024 11:39 AM

Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 28, 2024 12:06 PM

I too had this problem. I have a MacBook Air M1 2020 purchased in 2023. Recently updated to Sonoma 14. I had 2 Microsoft Outlook accounts which I had added (a long time ago) under the "Add other account" option on the Internet Accounts option on System Settings. These worked absolutely fine until a few days ago when like the author of this post I experienced exactly the same symptoms i.e. passwords are correct but Mail keeps saying can't connect to server and prompting for password but then still downloads emails. My solution which has worked (so far) is to delete the accounts and set them up again using the Microsoft Exchange option in Add Account under Internet Accounts option in System Settings. Hope this helps anyone experiencing the same problem.

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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 28, 2024 12:06 PM in response to Ambercalling

I too had this problem. I have a MacBook Air M1 2020 purchased in 2023. Recently updated to Sonoma 14. I had 2 Microsoft Outlook accounts which I had added (a long time ago) under the "Add other account" option on the Internet Accounts option on System Settings. These worked absolutely fine until a few days ago when like the author of this post I experienced exactly the same symptoms i.e. passwords are correct but Mail keeps saying can't connect to server and prompting for password but then still downloads emails. My solution which has worked (so far) is to delete the accounts and set them up again using the Microsoft Exchange option in Add Account under Internet Accounts option in System Settings. Hope this helps anyone experiencing the same problem.

Jan 25, 2024 2:09 PM in response to Ruskes

do you mean iCloud mail? I have never used it. On all Apple devices I have just added my hotmail email and password which date back to the Windows 7 days before I switched to Apple, on to the Mail App, and never had any problem. Plus another Outlook email as back up. I have logged on to Live.com and signed in to both of these with no issues.

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constantly asked for mail passwords on MacBook Air

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