Mail still forgets passwords

May have an answer to my MacBook Pro 'losing the passwords' when checking for email. A geek friend of mine, Eric Junkin, told me to turn off my iPad and my iPhone and my MacBook would not have any more problems. Did that and it worked! Apparently the mail app on the iPhone and iPad do not 'turn loose' the mail boxes for a long period of time. Can someone smarter than me verify this?

Cap

Nah, I don't have any thing else checking my email accounts. My iCloud account forgets passwork EVERYDAY, several times.

I have the exact same issue.

I use an iPad, iPhone, iCloud.com and OSX. I have been getting this pain ever since I changed to all-Apple in January.

I was so fed up with this that I decided to use the most extreme measure: complete fresh install of all devices (so without using a time capsule backup etc.). And be behold: the problem still exists.

I have literally tried everything, but this is a BUG, and should be fixed by Apple asap (yes Apple, because EVERYTHING I use is Apple, even down to the router).

I am sorry, but with Windows at least I know what I am in for, with Apple I thought to be trouble free or as they say: 'it just works'. Have yet to see their marketing magic work itself through to the OSX department.

PS: the irony: as I am typing this message, another Mail window pops up asking for password.

@Raymond

Couldn't have said it any better myself!

I switched a month ago. And Win7 still looks better than OS X. Only reason I HAD to ditch Win7 is app stability. Then again, right after buying MBP13, a bunch of Apple apps were crashing, maybe due to some currupt areas on the HDD. Disk and Permissions repair solved that issue.

@Raymond

I am in the same boat as you. Everything I use is Apple, including the router (time capsule).

I have 4 email accounts. This morning I had to re-enter the password for each email account multiple times.

Call me VERY skeptical that 4 separate email providers' email servers all crapped out at the exact same instant.

But I also have a fifth email account (an Exchange account which is my work email). It runs completely separately, out of an Outlook client. Interestingly, the only times I have problems with this email account are when my employer's email server actually is having problems.

The issue is something to do with Apple. I won't claim to be a software/networking guy and pretend I know what exactly it is. But I wish the denial would stop ("it's your email provider's server, it's your router on your network, it's 3rd party software installed on your computer, etc etc).

Enough with the excuses, Apple, just admit it's a bug and get it fixed.

Hi,

Understand your frustration. However, I have 2 iPhones, 2 iPads and 2 Macs accessing numerous email accounts, both POP and IMAP, and this does not happen except rarely, and almost always with AOL account. On my primary Mac I have currently have 12 email accounts, btw. Hotmail account is unuseble in Snow Leopard but works in Lion and on the portable devices, so I don't use it, as it really has only been a test account.

Since the Password prompt resulting from Mail's frequent checking of the connection to the SMTP cannot be easily distinguished from that from the incoming, tell us more about the SMTPs in use, and method of Authentication for them?

Ernie

@ Ernie

As mentioned, I have 4 email accounts. None of them are AOL or Hotmail (I refuse to use Hotmail....lol)

Account #1 is a POP account, the server is secureserver.net.

The "use only this server" option is enabled for the outgoing SMTP server for this account.

TLS Certificate is none

"Remove copy from server" is not checked.

Skipping messages over xxxx kb in size is left blank

Port is 995 and SSL is enabled. (This email provider requires SSL).

Authentication is password.

Account # 2 is also a POP account, the server is my cable company/internet service provider's. This account is used only very rarely.

Outgoing mail server is set as the same as Account #1 (which is my "primary" personal email address)

Use only this server is checked.

TLS is none

Remove copy from the server is not checked.

Skip messages over xxxx in size is blank.

Port is 110. SSL is *not* enabled.

Authentication is password.

Account #3 is a Yahoo.ca IMAP account.

Incoming and outgoing mail server is yahoo

"Use only this server" is *not* checked.

TLS is none

IMAP path prefix is blank

Port is 993 and SSL is checked

Authentication is password.

"Use IDLE Command" is checked and greyed out

Account #4 is is Gmail IMAP account.

Incoming and outgoing mail server is gmail

"use only this server" is *not* checked

TLS is none

IMAP path prefix is blank

Port is 993 and SSL is checked

Authentication is password

"Use IDLE command" is checked and not greyed out (as the yahoo account is, ie I could uncheck it here if I wanted to)

A good collection of what should be reliable services.

However, you have not reported anything about the port selection, nor SSL choice for any SMTP? I tend to avoid the use of the Default Port List (23, 464, 587) and instead select the one most recommended by the provider and enter that in the Use Custom Port selection box. What have you chosen? If not familiar with where these choices are made, see Mail Preferences/Accounts/Account Information, then click on the arrows beside the name of the Outgoing Server, choose Edit Server List and then click on the Advance tab there to see these port choices.

Using the default port list can result in Mail having something to only temporarily cause a problem with the currect port in use, then trying another port that will then fail because it is not the appropriate one to use.

Keep us posted.

Ernie

Btw, with Gmail I use Port 465 with SSL and with IDLE command checked -- even though the latter never works to my knowledge.

Message was edited by: Ernie Stamper

Thanks for keeping the discussion live Ernie. Apple keeps ignoring this problem. It IS obviously a bug on their end. One positive thing.... I now can remember my passwords.

I enjoyed moving to apple, but this is absolutely unacceptable customer service.

Cappy

FWIW

Running 10.6.8 and mail started forgetting password yesterday. I solved the problem, at least for me, by reinstalling the mail server. I use bellsouth.net (ATT) and there were some changes to the incoming server info after the reinstall and I had to import all my old mail but I have not had to reenter my password.

May try that but my mac only forgets passwords when my iPad is nearby and has checked the same accounts.

I haven't had this problem for quite a while, but yesterday all three computers on our in-house network have been asking for the password and not accepting the entry. Mail source is sbcglobal/yahoo. I get mail on my account on the Yahoo site and on my iPad - just not on my pro mac. I believe that Yahoo has just rolled out a major system change. That may have done it to us.

Did you see my comment above, wherein I said:

Since the Password prompt resulting from Mail's frequent checking of the connection to the SMTP cannot be easily distinguished from that from the incoming, tell us more about the SMTPs in use, and method of Authentication for them?

And furtherr:

However, you have not reported anything about the port selection, nor SSL choice for any SMTP? I tend to avoid the use of the Default Port List (23, 464, 587) and instead select the one most recommended by the provider and enter that in the Use Custom Port selection box. What have you chosen? If not familiar with where these choices are made, see Mail Preferences/Accounts/Account Information, then click on the arrows beside the name of the Outgoing Server, choose Edit Server List and then click on the Advance tab there to see these port choices.

Using the default port list can result in Mail having something to only temporarily cause a problem with the currect port in use, then trying another port that will then fail because it is not the appropriate one to use.

Keep us posted.

Ernie

I spent an hour on the phone last night, attempting to get past the robots and to a live person who also knew something about Macs. Had to check all my settings and everything was according to what they wanted - which I assumed was the case, since it was all working correctly a day before. The first two live people I got were internet specialists and kept telling me that the problem was Safari - and I had to keep telling them that the internet mail was working fine. Finally, I got someone who knew. He said that it was all their problem (gasp!) and they were working on it. He said I should try again in the morning. I did, and it is once again working fine. Thanks.

How refreshing to find someone with such a provider that does not tell the automatic lie!

Ernie