Deleted smtp server does not go away!

I have found in Keychain two hidden entries that corresponded to smtp servers (com.apple.account.SMTP.asynchost), which I deleted and the ghost smtp servers went away.

But be careful with this approach, make a backup of the keys in the keychain before deleting whatever, as it can make the system unusable.

The same happened to me. Had to reinstall macOs.

Look at this: Re: Cannot delete SMTP server in Mail.app it just keeps reappearing

Take caution as deleting those entry apparently can lead to keychain malfunction. I suggest you to backup the keys first before delete them.

Hope it helps!

The post: Jan 22, 2012 4:10 PMRe: Deleted smtp server does not go away!in response to jk18Does not work.

The logic in the instruction should work, but it doesn't. The the servers reappear. If you're having a problem like I have, where my email server decides to change it SMTP address, this causes a pile of problems, because Mac Mail remember all of your old SMTP server and makes is pretty much impossible to get rid of them.

These lists of words, describing the SMTP servers, must be in a file somewhere for it to display them, but I've no idea where.

The only way to truly get rid of the old server names, is to do a fresh install, and not from a backup either as the problem will return, so jeopardising losing work, or use Mac Office's Outlooks.

Personally, I don't have the time or the patients to reconfigure ANOTHER! Mac upgrade issue, so I'll be using Outlook. So much for the "Better Mail with High Sierra". The only thing I have had no problems with while using High Sierra is using the Shut Down button.

I've got this problem too. What's really annoying is that no matter what outgoing server/address I choose to send my email from, it defaults to some funky account connected to my job. They made us all sign up for an email address with this domain, so we could get junk mail. It's not in any of my server lists. It's not one of my email accounts. It's like its got a bug or a virus, or a hack.

So when I'm at home wanting to email a joke I would never send from work, or through a work account...it gets defaulted to this junk work account.

I got some positive result when I deleted the Outgoing gmail sever with the account it seems to screw with the most. Closing the window, select save changes..., open it again, type in the same gmail server....

I hate that you can see a list of servers, accounts, etc.... follow all the Apple instructions, and this stuff just won't go away without taking up at least an hour.

Having the same problem. Can't find or think of a solution. Have tried reinstalling the OS among other possibilities. TO no avail. And this doesn't seem to be cosmetic, the remaining smtp server seems to be screwing up other stuff.

HELP!

I've the same issue: can't delete some old SMTP accounts.

The only place where I found some evidence of SMTP accounts is in ~/Library/AccuntAccounts/Accounts4.sqlite

It's actually a Database file storing informations about accounts. I'm worried to modify it to mess everything even more, though.

Tried deleting those files and things did not go well...

Now, get an error message when trying to add an iCloud email account: "Could not load iCloud preference pain." and cannot create any other Internet (Email) Accounts -- Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. -- "+" is inactive and clicking on the logos does nothing.

2014 15" MacBook Pro

- Have reinstalled High Sierra twice.

- Have tried many different fixes for both the SMTP server and the iCloud preference pane.

- Can login to iCloud in Safari, cannot login to iCloud in Messenger, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, etc. All of these work fine on iPhone.

- Does not appear to be global -- created another user and did not run into same problem.

- Can be replicated in Safe Mode.

- Recommendations on the www for deleting a variety of files and/or folders. None of this helped.

AppleCare elevated to the email specialists.

Email specialists tried many things over the course of about 2 hours.

Email specialist elevated to engineering. Waiting to hear from them.

To be continued...

Same problem. Making me nuts.

2014 MBP withe High Sierra.

Tried deleting all email accounts. When they were recreated, errant SMTP server still there. It has "(Offline)" after it.

Because of other problems, erased hard drive, reinstalled High Sierra, restored from a Time Capsule backup and the problem was reinstalled. Errant SMTP server still there. Nothing deletes it.

Errant server still there in Safe Mode, but not there for a Test User.

Have spend hours on the phone with AppleCare over the course of 2 days and they are about ready to give up -- they have no solution.

Bug? Frustrated.

DOOUBLE BRAVO, cpfamilia! Hosannah in the highest!

Deleted some suspicion things from Keychain to no avail. But...

... Reread your entry and Marco's and realized there may be some HIDDEN entries I had not seen. Sure enough, looked under "View" and found "Show Invisible Items". Turned this on and the culprits made themselves known.

Found a few "com.apple.account.SMTP.asynchost" entries. Deleted these and the unwanted, offending (ghost) SMTP servers are G. O. N. E.!

Your warning to be careful deleting items in the Keychain is critical. One can end up losing things one don't mean to lose.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(Now, will call AppleCare and let them know the fix.)

AMAZING.... AMAZING erroneous SMTP entries were bugging me for a while and this fixed the problem. I noticed it only affected manually entered SMTP server settings. I think manually entered settings get stored as a separate entry and get pushed to the cloud. I reinstalled High Sierra but problem didn't go away and even tried a much earlier time machine.

Stupid problem.... simple fix =]

I was able to delete a "ghost" SMTP entry in High Sierra as follows. Note that this interferes deeply with the internal Mail data management and should only be used as a measure of last resort.

1) Open Mail, go to the SMTP Server List, and note down the "Description" of the SMTP server you want to delete.

2) Quit Mail with Command-Q.

3) Start Terminal and enter these commands:

cd

cd Library/Accounts

sqlite3 Accounts4.sqlite

4) At the 'sqlite>' prompt, enter the command (up to and including the semicolon):

SELECT ZACCOUNTDESCRIPTION FROM ZACCOUNT;

You should get a list of account descriptions, including the description of your offending SMTP server.

5) Pick the one for the offending SMTP server and enter

DELETE FROM ZACCOUNT WHERE ZACCOUNTDESCRIPTION = 'XXX';

where XXX is the description of the SMTP server you want to delete as previously seen.

6) Enter the above "SELECT" command again; the description should now no longer be listed.

7) Still at the 'sqlite>' prompt, enter the command

.exit

to exit SQLite. Exit Terminal. Do not start Mail yet.

8) Run "Automation" in OnyX (https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html) to rebuild/clear any caches. At the end of the run, restart the Mac.

9) After restart, start Mail again and check settings. The SMTP server should be gone.