Mail will no longer work with AOL

Question

Level 1

11 points

Mail will no longer work with AOL

My wife can not access her AOL email account through Mail. She has accessed it for long time but this morning she came down and was prompted to enter her password. "The AOL IMAP server "imap.aol.com" rejected the password for user xxxxx" She entered her password but it wouldnt take. She actually has two AOL email account that she accesses through Mail and neither would work.

She logged onto www.aol.com and was able to sign in. She changed her passwords to be safe. We went into Mail and Preferences and changed her passwords for each account making sure to save the changes. But again, she was prompted to enter her password and still the same message as above.

After reading the boards here I went into Keychain Access and ran Keychain First Aid. I ran Verify first and no problems found. Then ran Repair and no problems found. I shut the whole computer down and restarted. No luck with getting mail to interface with AOL. Note: on my user account (Admin) my AOL account is working fine.

The inbox error message is "Unable to Connect" There may be a problem wit the mail server or network (not the case as I am getting my mail fine). Verify the settings for account "xxxx - AOL Mail" or try again. The server returned ther erro: The attempt to read data from the server "imap.aol.com" failed

Then I went into her Ipad, where the mail was also not working, and deleted the mail account. I went into to create the new account and go the message "The user name or password for "imap.aol.com" is incorrect.

Again, I can go to AOL.com and log into her account and get her mail fine.

I dont know what to do. Nothing seems to make sense.

Help?!?

Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 29, 2011 5:34 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

DAW8827

Level 1

4 points

May 14, 2017 5:58 PM in response to Eric Setash

I recently had trouble setting up my AOL Email account. Because I didn't have a paid account they wouldn't help me on the phone. They tried to get me to set up a paid account which to me sounded like a big scam.

I tried to get information through emails with AOL support but the information I received was information that was worthless because I still cannot set up my account .

I went through various posts on the Apple website and realized that no one talked about the two-step authorization for AOL

In order to set up my IMAP.aol.com I had to disable my two step authorization code Once that was done the account magically reappeared. AOL should have given me that procedure but they didn't .

Hope this helps anyone having trouble with IMAP in their AOL accounts

Reply

Answer 2

Eric Setash Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 29, 2011 6:06 PM in response to Eric Setash

Ok, lucky me. Now my AOL accounts wont work either. I ran mail connection doctor and under the smtp.aol.com:xxxx account found the following:

host: smtp.aol.com -- port:587 -- socket xxxx - thread xxx QUIT

get the same basic feedback everytime I run mail connection doctor.....

Reply

Answer 3

Eric Setash Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 29, 2011 6:08 PM in response to Eric Setash

Got a slightly different message this last time: 535 5.7.8 Error: authentication failed: authentication failure

Reply

Answer 4

Carlo TD

Level 3

564 points

Jun 29, 2011 6:54 PM in response to Eric Setash

try changing the port to 993 and put a check box in use ssl. Also you could try changing the incoming mail server to imap.aim.com.

Reply

Answer 5

Eric Setash Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 29, 2011 7:02 PM in response to Carlo TD

Port is set to 993 and ssl is checked. Now I am getting that it can not send from smtp.aol.com or smtp.gmail.com - rejected password for user xxxx

thanks, but no luck

Reply

Answer 6

Carlo TD

Level 3

564 points

Jun 29, 2011 7:11 PM in response to Eric Setash

I believe aol uses both aim and aol for servers... set your smtp to smtp.aim.com:username@aim.com Where you have aim you can substitute aol if you prefer or vice versa. I have mine set to aim.

Reply

Answer 7

Carlo TD

Level 3

564 points

Jun 29, 2011 7:15 PM in response to Carlo TD

in your smtp you should not have any port number.and you should use default port number and you should not hav the SSL filled out in the smtp area.

Reply

Answer 8

clenigm

Level 1

0 points

Jun 29, 2011 8:31 PM in response to Eric Setash

Mail stopped working w/AOL for me 3 days ago on all 4 computers and iphone. I have two accounts and neither can send/receive mail. Tried everything I can think of/found online like other users here. Extremely frustrating to have to login to AOL server to check it. I did discover today that I can disable the wifi on my iphone and connect just fine over 3G. This tells me my settings and passwords are fine on the computers-seems to be a problem AOL has w/network connections. Any ideas?

Reply

Answer 9

Eric Setash Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 30, 2011 5:00 AM in response to clenigm

I am receiving emails fine but cant send. Its not just AOL smtp it is also gmail smtp that wont work. It tries to log in but cant verify username and password. Has to be a problem with Mail or Keychain. Stumped and ******

Reply

Answer 10

Carlo TD

Level 3

564 points

Jun 30, 2011 5:07 AM in response to Eric Setash

When editing the smtp and it says authentication select password and enter your username and password.

Reply

Answer 11

Eric Setash Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 30, 2011 5:36 AM in response to Carlo TD

Thanks but username and password are there

Reply

Answer 12

Carlo TD

Level 3

564 points

Jun 30, 2011 5:47 AM in response to Eric Setash

try this, Open up your mail application. Go to preferences. click the plus sign under the accounts tab (not the minus sign!!!! because it will then remove the email from the computer- and it could be a pain getting it back- and I dont know how to do that, unless you have a timemachine back up but for now press the plus sign recreate the account... then compare what is different to the older account then just use the minus sign on the newer accounts, leaving the older account intact).

Reply

Answer 13

Eric Setash Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 30, 2011 5:50 AM in response to Carlo TD

Ok, maybe got it fixed. Tooling around the web I found a suggestion that it was a dns issue and that I should reset my router. I did, and it looks like its working (fingers crossed).

Reply

Answer 14

Carlo TD

Level 3

564 points

Jun 30, 2011 5:52 AM in response to Eric Setash

Hmm.. i just tried it and it looks like the port is different that is the only thing i see different.

Reply

Answer 15

djkramer

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2011 5:18 AM in response to Eric Setash

I am having the same issue. Aol mail quit working on all our macs and iPhones yesterday. AOL webmail still works. I am getting "The AOL IMAP server “imap.aol.com” rejected the password." I reset modem. Server port set at 993. Arrrrg!

Reply