Completely delete Exchange account from Mail client on Mac

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Level 1

8 points

Completely delete Exchange account from Mail client on Mac

I'm having a problem with a several e-mail messages in my Mail client. These messages seem "stuck" in that whenever I try to delete these messages, I get an error message in Mail that says:

An error occurred while moving messages to mailbox “Trash — Exchange”.

I named the account Exchange. These messages are NOT on my Exchange mail server anymore - I also access my mail from an Outlook client as well and these "stuck" messages do not appear in Outlook which is pulling directly from Exchange.

My first attempt to resolve was to delete the account from the Mail client and set it up again. All of the folders and e-mail messages re-appeared almost instantly so it obviously didn't go out to the Exchange server and pull down over 100K e-mail messages in 30 seconds.

Then I spoke to AppleCare. They directed me to the Library to delete a subfolder in the Mail folder that appeared to contain the messages. When I emptied the Trash, it appeared that the 100K messages were being deleted. I went to Mail to setup the account again. Again, the messages reappeared quickly as before and the problem messages were still there as if they never were deleted.

So now I'm looking for a way to completely the Exchange account and all of its local data from Mail. I want the Mail client to start from scratch and go out to the Exchange server to get the data like the account had never been setup on this Mac before. I'd also opt for a fresh install of Mail but I have a MBA 11 so I don't have OS media or a DVD drive.

Somewhere Mail is clealry caching info on that account. It's apparent when I've deleted the account and then re-opened Mail to set it back up the first time. Whenever the dialog box appears, it remembers my Exchange e-mail account information in the field so it's obviously pulling that information from somewhere locally on the Mac, not from the server.

MacBook Air (11-INCH, MID 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 20, 2012 9:33 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 25, 2013 8:13 AM in response to JudeO

Did anybody ever work out how to completely remove the Exchange account from Mail? I'm having a very similar problem and want to remove all reference to it and start again.

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Answer 2

Sep 20, 2012 5:55 PM in response to JudeO

My problem is slightly different, but I'm trying to accomplish the same thing – I'd like to completely remove my exchange account from Mail. JudeO is clearly right. There is clearly some kind of local caching going on that prevents all traces of the Exchange account from disappearing. I want to start completely from scratch but haven't been able to figure out how to do so.

Very frustrating.

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Answer 3

JudeO Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 25, 2013 9:13 AM in response to JudeO

Never got a reply and still having the issue. Thinking about doing a clean wipe of the machine to reset to factory default and then resetting everything back up. Pretty easy on a Mac (compared to a Windows machine).

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Answer 4

Feb 25, 2013 9:16 AM in response to JudeO

Istn't it easier for you to set up a new user and start with that and then delete the current user? I'm trying to avoid having to do this but when I tested it a new user fixed the problem. Must be a certificate/keychain problem.

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Answer 5

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 25, 2013 9:18 AM in response to team_mclaren

Snow Leopard and earlier.

Open Mail Preferences>Accounts, select the Exchange account, delete it.

In Lion or Mountain Lion,

Open Mail Contacts and Calendars, select the Exchange account, delete it.

in future please include your OSX version, less guesswork that way.

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Answer 6

JudeO Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 25, 2013 9:20 AM in response to JudeO

That's a good approach too - one that I didn't try. Would certainly be much easier and faster if it works. Do I understand that you did test this out and it worked? If so, I'm going to give it a try.

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Answer 7

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 25, 2013 9:23 AM in response to JudeO

JudeO wrote:

That's a good approach too - one that I didn't try. Would certainly be much easier and faster if it works. Do I understand that you did test this out and it worked? If so, I'm going to give it a try.

Who are you asking this question of?

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Answer 8

JudeO Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 25, 2013 9:38 AM in response to Csound1

Sorry. Forgot that this was going out to everyone. I was responding to team_mclaren's suggestion of creating a new user. I prefer that approach to my wipe and reinstall approach.

team_mclaren, were you able to test your solution with the new user and get it to work effectively?

Csound1, I've tried that approach. In the original description up top, I described how I deleted the account on two occasions (one with the oversight of AppleCare) and how a straight-up delete doesn't solve the problem. When you setup the account again, it replicates the problem.

I'm running Mountain Lion on the machine with all of the latest patches BTW.

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Answer 9

Feb 25, 2013 10:18 AM in response to JudeO

As you say, removing the Exchange account on Mail really doesn't delete it. It's caching something because of how quickly it finds the folders etc. if you add the account again.

I was having a lot of very strange problems with Mail/Contacts/Calendar and certainly a new user I set up from scratch worked with Mail etc. straight away. I didn't test it for days but within seconds it pulled down all the correct emails and the number of unread tallied with my iPhone which was one of the annoying problems I was having.

One of the things I read elsewhere is how useful doing a Mailbox/Rebuild from within Mail is. I just tried it now on my existing user name and it certainly seems to have helped. It immediately refreshed the Inbox and had it accurate. However, despite having it set to "1 min checking for new mail" after several mins it seems to have hung again and isn't refreshing.

Mail for OSX has caused me a million more problems that for iOS which just works every time. I don't see how Apple can make it work so smoothly on iOS and give loads of problems on OSX.

Have you tried the Mailbox/Rebuild?

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Answer 10

JudeO Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 25, 2013 2:47 PM in response to team_mclaren

team_mclaren - it's been so long ago that I don't recall if I tried the Mailbox/Rebuild or not. I seem to recall doing it but it not working. I'm going to either do the new user that you recommend or redo the whole machine - give it some spring cleaning.

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