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"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

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71 replies

Jul 24, 2017 11:28 AM in response to ixmati

correct. had the same issues today, and had already done what it states above. although i didn't need to adjust /add my user name to be my email address, I did add it, after reading this, just in case. What I did do, is go to my Gmail account, on the Chrome/Google server, clicked on the IMAP setting, then when mail continued to NOT open anything but iCloud, although it EVENTUALLY said it was connecting to the internet, I went back to Chrome/Gmail, and UNCLICKED the IMAP setting. THEN IMMEDIATELY, my mail was PERFECT. My mail IS in IMAP, even though my Google serve has IMAP "unchecked". THAT is basically all I did. I did, as stated above go into the keychain, and check everything.

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.

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...

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

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.

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!

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?

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

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