Icloud IMAP server "p01-imap.mail.me.com" rejected the password "XXXX." and The password is ok!. After several attempts to synchronize with them sometimes

Bizarre, I've been waiting for apple to resolve this issue without having to fork out for a support call. Today I gave in and called Apple for support. I was just being put through to an advisor to explain why I didn't feel i should have to pay for the support as it was an Apple created problem when I logged on to Safari to get the precise error message and PING suddenly all my emails worked.

Seems somewhat ironic that it should have happened just when I was holding to have a moan at the supervisor!

I was getting this same error from Sunday, April 1st thorugh Tuesday, April 3rd. I tried some of the troubleshooting steps suggested, shy of resetting my password and none of them worked for me. I decided to try to wait it out and follow this thread as I was certain this was an issue on Apple's end. After seeing the post from "diffdaffdelaney" on April 3rd I tried accessing my email and low and behold it worked as well. Apple obviously resolved the issue.

This was definitely an issue on Apple's end. It would be nice to know what the issue was and the scope. What an inconveinience for those of us impacted. Some frustration could have certainly been avoided had Apple been proactive and posted some sort of notification on their iCloud Status Page to let the users impacted know that there is an issue and that they are working on it.

I'm still extremely happy with iCloud however there could be improvement in the area of notifying users when there are issues.

I had the same problem. On 4th April I started getting these massages that my password was wrong on my iPhone 4, my MacBook Pro and on iCloud. I reset my apple ID and that fixed it.

I suspect that the problem is the 'p01-' or 'p02-' prefix on the server address. These prefixes represent different load-balancing servers within a cluster, and from time to time one or another (there may be more) is down, and if it happens to be the one with your prefix, then the server won't recognise you. I suspect that this 'p0x-' prefix is put there by the automatic setup mechanism in Mail which queries the server responding to a particular email address. It gets back the address of just one server in the cluster - not the address of the cluster itself. Once the prefix is there, you can't edit it. Here's how I think you can fix it for good:

1. Go to Mail/Preferences/Accounts and add a new mail account (using the plus icon at the bottom).

2. In the Email Address: field, enter a POP email address (i.e. one which does NOT have me.com at the end). Any email address will do - doesn't have to be yours. Leave the password blank.

3. This may either take you to a screen saying 'Can't send password to server - set up manually?' (answer yes), or just take you to the manual setup sheet anyway.

4. You now have an 'Incoming Mail Server' sheet. Pull down the Account Type and choose IMAP.

5. Give your account any name of your choosing (e.g. iCloud)

6. Enter your Incoming Mail Server as: 'imap.mail.me.com' (no quotes - note no 'p0x-' prefix).

7. Enter your user name as your @me.com email address without the @me.com. Enter your correct password and click Continue.

8. Enter 'smtp.mail.me.com' as your outgoing mail server, or choose it from the list if it is already set up. Just follow the bouncing ball to set up your outgoing server - you can always change this at the end.

9. Once your account has been set up, don't forget to change your email address back to your @me.com address in the Account Information tab of your new account.

10. You should then be able to delete your old email account. A good idea to populate your new account from the cloud first, just in case.

When set up this way, the server will silently add the 'p01-', 'p02-' etc prefix at the time of connection and connect to one of the servers in the cluster. You should then not see your username rejected unless all servers are down. I suspect that you will get better performance as well, because you should always connect to the least busy server.

This works great for fixing the Mail app, but it doesn't play well with the iCloud system preferences, since the new account is not recognized as the same iCloud account-unchecking and checking the "Mail and Notes" box in the iCloud settings re-creates the same dysfunctional account settings. It seems like the easy fix would be to eliminate the pxx server designation in the auto settings so the app wouldn't constantly hang trying to communicate to an overloaded or non-functional mail server. Since the app works fine without it, I don't see the value of automatically assigning an email account to a specific server, especially for the user.

Yep - it seems counter-intuitive, but just leave the Mail and Notes unchecked in iCloud prefs. You can check any of the others to sync and they don't seem to complain. Effectively, you are getting your Mail and Notes from an external IMAP delivery (just happens to be iCloud!). On my system, both mail and notes seem to sync OK.

Yeah, mine syncs okay as well, but an Apple app requiring a fix that is basically a back door solution (no offense to your solution, BTW!) just seems way too "DOS-like" for my taste-I think of those that are less tech savvy having to deal with the constant PW rejection and not getting any help from Apple on the problem other than to wait out the server hiccup (which was essentially the last advice I got from AppleCare-after that, I decided I could do better on my own)-not a good situation, especially for an OS that is trying to emulate the ease of use of the iOS environment, IMHO. BTW, it is worth noting that I have not had the same problem with my iPhone or iPad, so that setup must not have the same hard-wired incoming server assignment. It still seems to me that it would be straightforward to set up the server with some sort of a front end routing function that would eliminate the need for assigning email addresses to specific servers-that feels like an 80s solution to an email server load balancing problem, but that's just me.

Glego, thanks again for the tip-I definitely appreciate the assistance and will spread the word to my family and friends, many of whom also are having this issue.

I agree - it's really bad that support communities like this should be the place to fix what is essentially Apple's faulty logic. I'm actually a Windows person, and I've chucked out all my Windows stuff and gone Apple in the hope that I might not have to put up with this sort of stuff, but... I guess that's what happens when small responsive companies become juggernauts - be they Microsoft or Apple.

glego wrote:

Here's how I think you can fix it for good:

Just signing out in System Preferences>iCloud and signing back in will set Mail up again from scratch. Obviously all iCloud data will disappear from the Mac when signing out, but will re-appear when signing back in.

Had the problem on a Friday morning and left it alone; the next morning the problem had disappeared.

Roger, this will only reset to the pxx mail server, which is the root of the problem and only works if the reset somehow chooses a different pxx server (mine never did-I alwasy ended up with the same dysfunctional one). Unchecking and rechecking the Mail box in the iCloud preferences does the same thing, BTW, also with the same results. I initially tried those methods, but so far Glego's fix is the only one I've found that works (and is still working-no more PW rejected messages since then). My Mail app would be fine in the evening but have the "password rejected" error the next morning for several mornings in a row, and I got tired of just sitting and waiting for an unknown problem (that wasn't even identified on the system status page until after it was already fixed) to be resolved within an unknown amount of time.

I hate metoos, but....Me too. Or at least my wifes.

Her server starts with p4. She says its not worked for a week, but she didnt say anything as it worked on her iPhone. Now thats stopped too.

My mail, on the same system, still works.

I am also having the same issue.

I don't want to log out of icloud on my mac because I am afraid I will lose all my info - when I sign back in, will it resync from my cloud / phone?

Thank you Thank you Thank you. I have been rying for days to try and fix the problem of not getting my mac mail. I followed all the steps you outlined and I am now getting my Mac mail on my mac. I am also getting my aol mail on my mac. LOL. Thank you very very much.

Oh sorry, I lied. Am not getting AOL mail. that is just what I called my new account......lol