GoldenA

Q: "Mail can't connect to the account 'Gmail'"

This issue arose this morning. Mail requests my Gmail account password and, after having entered it numerous times, continuously fails to connect to the account. Mail is failing to connect to both the incoming and outgoing servers, despite the correct information being entered for each. Furthermore, Mail now fails to connect to the IMAP server of the added iCloud account. I'm on a 2012 iMac running Mountain Lion and Mail 6.3. I've tried readding the Gmail account, to no avail. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, 13-inch, Mid 2009

Posted on May 15, 2013 11:02 AM

Close

Q: "Mail can't connect to the account 'Gmail'"

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 of 5 last Next
  • by arthur,

    arthur arthur May 15, 2013 4:28 PM in response to GoldenA
    Level 5 (5,193 points)
    iBooks
    May 15, 2013 4:28 PM in response to GoldenA

    Could be a keychain issue.

    Go to Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access and in the Keychain Access menu, scroll down to Keychain First Aid. Do a repair and see if that fixes the problem.

    Make sure there is only one entry for each mail account keychain and that the passwords are correct, too.

    If that doesn't work, try deleting the mail keychain entries, deleting all your mail accounts, and then setting them all up from scratch.

    After that I'm all out of ideas.

  • by sass76,

    sass76 sass76 Jun 3, 2013 12:09 AM in response to GoldenA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 3, 2013 12:09 AM in response to GoldenA

    Hey there

    I was having the exact same trouble until I turned off the 2 step verification on my gmail account.  for some reason I stopped being able to get any mail on my machine of iphone if this is activated.

    Hope that helps.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jun 3, 2013 11:55 AM in response to GoldenA
    Level 9 (69,996 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 3, 2013 11:55 AM in response to GoldenA
  • by jacquir,

    jacquir jacquir Jul 10, 2013 6:22 AM in response to GoldenA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 10, 2013 6:22 AM in response to GoldenA

    I've just spent a couple of hours with the same problem when setting up new account for my husband's new iMac.  Tried everything - setting up account via Gmail option in Mail, then the manual method. Still came back saying couldn't verify account. Then I removed the 2-step verification. Then I set up the gmail account manually (chose "Other") and NOT via the Gmail option on Mail.  Thought it wasn't working and presto mail started to download.  It is still downloading 4,000 messages that have been archived into folders via Gmail so I gather that's why my test emails haven't been sent.  Will let you know if they don't when the system finishes downloading.  At least things are communicating now...

  • by EuanK,

    EuanK EuanK Jul 30, 2013 7:38 PM in response to sass76
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2013 7:38 PM in response to sass76

    sass76 - I had this exact problem with one of my clients and your suggestion fixed it.  I could not figure out why Apple Mail would work perfectly with my Gmail account details but not theirs.  Thank you very much!

  • by attention,

    attention attention Aug 20, 2013 7:16 PM in response to GoldenA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2013 7:16 PM in response to GoldenA

    I have been tried all these tips. But none of these are working. this is so inconvinience n frustrated. Hope a savior come out soon

  • by Christopher Corbettis1,Helpful

    Christopher Corbettis1 Christopher Corbettis1 Sep 2, 2013 5:39 AM in response to GoldenA
    Level 2 (234 points)
    Sep 2, 2013 5:39 AM in response to GoldenA
    1. Create an Application-specific password - Google help
    2. Go to /Applications/Utilities - launch Keychain Access
    3. Search for imap.gmail.com and delete the entry for that (presuming you connect via IMAP, otherwise search for pop3.gmail.com)
    4. Repeat for smtp.gmail.com
    5. Go back to Apple Mail and check your email, you will be prompted for your password
    6. Paste in the password in the password prompt, making sure the "Remember this password in my keychain" is enabled
  • by Christopher Corbettis1,

    Christopher Corbettis1 Christopher Corbettis1 Sep 4, 2013 12:35 AM in response to Christopher Corbettis1
    Level 2 (234 points)
    Sep 4, 2013 12:35 AM in response to Christopher Corbettis1
    1. You will need the password the next time you send mail too, just repeat step 6.
  • by katoman,

    katoman katoman Sep 29, 2013 2:00 PM in response to GoldenA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2013 2:00 PM in response to GoldenA

    The final solution for me was the elimination of the two step verification process on my Gmail account. After that my Apple Mail program worked flawlessly and in its most recent iteration it literally flies!

     

    I could not be happier and find no need for any other Mail application.

  • by Jed Pekoy,

    Jed Pekoy Jed Pekoy Nov 2, 2013 12:39 AM in response to Christopher Corbettis1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2013 12:39 AM in response to Christopher Corbettis1

    Generating and using the application specific password was the perfect solution Christopher!  Thanks!  I'd done this in the past, but recently changed my google account password (which by the way is the same password used by the gmail email account), and tried pasting that in the password boxes for in and outgoing servers in my mac mail program, with continual rejection.  And I DO have 2 step verification on. So finally, after 2.5 hours of screwing around with this (what a waste of a night), I came across your comment here and it allowed me to solve the issue and get some sleep!.

     

    Note, if you go in to turn two step verification off, the google system will not give you a popup and ask if you are tuning off because your device or app is not syning with your gmail account.  Follow the links, and this will guide you through how to set this up.  It's actually very simple, so rather than read a mess of instructions, you may want to just go into your account and look around the two step verification page for application specific password generation.

     

    Thanks again so much for your reply to this blog forum.

  • by DJRyanS,

    DJRyanS DJRyanS Feb 27, 2014 6:16 PM in response to GoldenA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 6:16 PM in response to GoldenA

    I have tried everything above and still won't work.  I called Apple and they couldn't help. Said to call Google.  Well you can't call Google so I am stuck.  4hrs and counting and have done everything 3-4 times listed above.

  • by Jed Pekoy,

    Jed Pekoy Jed Pekoy Feb 27, 2014 10:20 PM in response to DJRyanS
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 10:20 PM in response to DJRyanS

    If you haven't yet upgraded to OSX 10.9.2 you may want to try this. In this update they have configured several fixes for the issues Mac Mail is having with Google Mail.  This solved quite a few of the issues for me.

     

    If this does not fix the issue, and you have no already, I highly recommend investigating the 2-step verification, as this is where many of the problems stem from.

     

    As always, be sure to back up your computer BEFORE the upgrade.

     

    Good Luck!

  • by jpeterson_insearch,

    jpeterson_insearch jpeterson_insearch Mar 4, 2014 12:21 PM in response to Jed Pekoy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2014 12:21 PM in response to Jed Pekoy

    we use a custom URL with gmail, and I don't have access to the two-step verification.  I'm not allowed to enable it, it says.  However if it's not enabled then I probably don't have to disable it--and although that's the case, and I have 10.9.2, Mail still shows gmail smtp server as offline and I can't send.  Receiving is not a problem.

     

    Any thoughts?

  • by jacquir,

    jacquir jacquir Mar 4, 2014 12:33 PM in response to jpeterson_insearch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2014 12:33 PM in response to jpeterson_insearch

    I had to create an application specific password for all my devices: Mac, Macbook and iphone.  They technically all have different passwords now but once I entered the password allocated for each I had no problems.

     

    I also have the 2-step verification set so each time I created a password for a new device I had to get a code which was sent to my iphone and enter that.  I just ticked the option to verify the device and I only had to do it once.

     

    Hope this helps.

Page 1 of 5 last Next