Can not receive email, password not accepted by server

I got the same exact problem. I even created a test email account. Everything worked fine, connection tests successful, but after finishing the setup process I cannot receive email. I called the Apple Hotline, but the person didn´t have any idea either how to solve the problem.

I have an Imap and a Pop account that just won't recieve. I have tried every setting in the various accounts and nothing. This really is a **** up on a grand scale by Apple and indefensible - those that are trying to defend Apple here really do need to get out more - on this occasion 'the King really does have no clothes on'!

If anyone has any feedback from apple on what they are doing to fix this it would be greatly apprecaited as we need this corrected for our business as a matter of urgency.

What is also indefensible is how difficult it is on their website to make a complaint - it is not as if this is their first **** up in recent months so they should by now know they are far from perfect and allow constructive feedback and interraction - the fact that they don't, you have to question jow customer focused they really are!

Morale of the story - leave new software well alone until they iron out the bugs (not that anyone expected one on this scale) - as for Apple - its shameful so sort it out quick - we paid in good faith - and should have got a simple solution rather than a big headache.

Now having problems with Time Capsule too to add insult to injury! What have they done..............

heyyy any news about it ? please I need my emails !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While you await a solution – may I suggest that since most folks with problems are using POP protocol – that you act immediately to conserve your existing email in the troubled account(s):

1. Select the problem mailbox in the left panel (unhide as needed)
2. Under 'Mailbox' in the top menu bar pull down to 'Export Mailbox'
3. Archive the contents and store that data on a USB thumb drive
4. In case you need to delete and re-create that mail account your mail won't be lost
5. If needed you can later 'Import Mailbox' into the newly created account

Don't forget that for most servers you can also access and reply to your mail via a webmail interface. This is certainly true of most ISP's and OS X Server users who have SquirrelMail enabled.

Hope this helps.

Definitely do what Michael says. I have just had a near disaster now importing seven years of emails from back up.

I'm sorry (but relieved) to see that I'm not the only one experiencing problems with the new Mail program in 10.7. I'm using the National Capital Freenet (NCF) in Ottawa, Canada, and neither the POP or IMAP routes work for my e-mail account there, even as my gmail and MobileMe accounts work fine. As with everyone else, it appears to be a problem with authentication when checking mail (vs. sending mail, which works fine).

I hope Apple will fix this frustrating issue promptly, but I agree with all those saying that it's important to havve some perspective -- so, let's take a deep breath, have a relaxing cup of coffee (or glass of something stronger), and recognize that there are alternatives. Thunderbird isn't nearly as elegant as the new Mail, but it does work. I'm also lucky enough to be able to use webmail with the NCF. I've also taken the precaution mentioned by Michael Sidoric and exported my mailboxes, just in case.

Hello

I have the same problem here with pt.lu on my Macbook pro with Lion

IMAP doesn't change anything.

Outgoing mails work.

I have installed Thunderbird to have at least a working mail client.

I will not upgrade my Imac until Mail works.

Jacques

Good advise from Michael, although my normal backup is the Time Capsule and guess what - since loading OS X Lion this is stuck in a circle of 'Preparing Backup' - have tried Veryfying, Repaing and a lot more and still can't access. This is software that clearly should not have been released in its current state. Spoke to support and the best they could suggest was reinstall!

Give me Windows any day, yes the software is a poor imtation, but at least its a poor imitation that works! Apple, you end up paying for its failings (I had to buy Time Capsule because the last 'brand new' Mac kept failing) whilst telling the world that Apple is GOD!! I guess most people by the time they arrive here will know its not - but have the good grace when you meet your friends to tell them its not half as good as people make out (wht don't people tell i like it is - is marketing that powerful)! If my friends had been a liitle more hones I'd still have a Windows and email working perfectly!!

Hoping a Microsoft Executive will read this so that I can soon return to a more 'productive' product!

Install the free Thunderbird for your mail until Apple solves the problem - which it will, given the widespread nature of it. They will want to shy away from negative publicity on their new shiny Lion.

I managed to fix this error by setting the SMTP server to "Password" instead of "NTLM"

Good to hear one person is off the hook but having tried all options including this - it won't be that simple for most!

I think the situation is frustrating, but it doesn't help to rant and get overwrought about it. Ultimately, these problems will be solved; there is a perfectly good workaround for people (like you and like me) whose mail is affected -- use a different reader like Thunderbird. I don't have a Time Capsule and I have no idea what could be going wrong, but maybe it's worth trying a reinstallation. Maybe it's worth double checking that the firmware in the Time Capsule is up-to-date. There are just so many things that could be going on. It's truly unfortunate that it's causing you problems, though.

But here's the thing about quality. By its own account, Apple sold and sent out more than one million copies of Lion to users on day 1. Even if 99 percent of installations go perfectly (let's assume this just for the sake of argument), and 99 percent of people have no problem with Mail, that still leaves a large 1% -- that's at least 10,000 people who are going to have problems on day 1 (and who will rightly be grumpy about those problems). I have no knowledge about what a launch entails in terms of successful installs versus problems, or what would be a reasonable expectation given the myriad configurations and installations out in the wild, but even testing multiple systems using multiple configurations (and multiple systems were tested by Apple and certainly by developers outside of Apple running it on their own machines) and multiple mail platforms, it's still possible that unforseen problems are going to arise.

It's a similar situation with Macs. You could sell one million Macs and have 990,000 work perfectly for years, but 10,000 that have big problems. It would be a huge success rate but still result in a lot of unhappy purchasers. This doesn't excuse any given failures, but even a phenomenally successful and reliable product is unlikely to be perfect 100% of the time.

I'm not going to get into a Windows vs. Apple debate here, but it doesn't take more than a few seconds using Google to see that Windows Vista and Windows 7 users had problems installing, and had problems with their systems after it was installed, including the process of "activating" their copy of Windows.

I think Mac users -- and certainly myself personally -- regard Macs and OS X as being of generally very high quality. I don't think they're perfect; but they do provide a pleasant, reliable, productive work and play experience much of the time, and arguably lead the industry in many areas right now. By all accounts, Lion brings a number of huge improvements, particularly in the realm of security and file management/versioning. We can be so disappointed in Apple's failures because we expect so much from the company. I've had Mac problems in the past, to be certain -- but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Mac to a friend based on my experiences because the service has been great, the products are generally excellent, and because they regularly take top scores in reliability and customer satisfaction.

Ok, my mail is working and restored. If you cannot wait for Apple to fix this and maybe they wont you can do what I did.

Install your settings into mail as another user or another account to test that mail works. If mail downloads and sends delete the account (if your mail account deletes from server you may need to export this mail to import later). Go to your mail current account. Export you mail boxes one by one somewhere safe like an external drive. When finished delete you account(s) which will wipe all information from mail. Unhide your library http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/04/show-library-directory-in-mac-os-x-lion/ go to your mail folder and delete the contents. Go to preferences in the same file and delete anything "com.apple.mail". Restart your computer. Open mail and enter your account details. Then import your mail boxes this will take a while so go and have a cup of tea. When imported they will show under subheading import. Now set up your mail app from scratch dragging and dropping mail to in or sent boxes and whatever subheadings you want. When finished I think it is best to quit and restart. Your mail should work again and if you have upgraded for many years like myself it will actually clean up your mail. Good luck and I hope it helps someone.

Thanks for posting this, Shaun. I'm afraid it didn't work for me personally, but I sure hope it will help others or even the OP.

I've had IMAP-UW login problems with Apple Mail since the GM seed release.

I sat down and diagnosed the problem, last week, but never took the time to come up with a solution.

Tonight, I sat down, and with a high dose of cafine, solved the issue for me, hope this will help others...

First, the "bug".

As others have determined, Apple has changed the login in sequence from using "tag LOGIN userid userpassword" to "tag AUTHENTICATE PLAIN `base64 encoded login data'"

If you follow the RFC's, `base64 encoded login data' parameter is an encoded string with three fields as follows; `authzid\0authcid\password'

The problem, is that, Apple has choosen to supply an empty "authzid" field, so you get a `\0authcid\0password' AUTHENTICATE parameter string instead.

This in and of it's self is legal according to the RFC's, however, this exercises the bug in IMAP-UW

Second, the "fix"

The patch is a one line change, and all is well again!

Note! This is against imapd-2007e (version 404)

--- ./imapd/imapd.c 2008-11-18 12:46:59.000000000 -0600

+++ ../../../imap-2007e/src/imapd/imapd.c 2011-07-22 00:46:57.000000000 -0500

@@ -2141,7 +2141,7 @@

/* must be at least one BASE64 char */

else if (!base64mask[*ret]) return NIL;

else { /* quick and dirty */

- while (base64mask[*s++]); /* scan until end of BASE64 */

+ while (base64mask[*s]) s++; /* scan until end of BASE64 */

if (*s == '=') ++s; /* allow up to two padding chars */

if (*s == '=') ++s;

}

Recompile, and restart your imapd processes, and your good to go.