Mail can't connect to iCloud account

Question

Level 1

12 points

Mail can't connect to iCloud account

Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere, I did a couple of searches and did not find an answer to this annoyance...

Since upgrading to 10.9, Mail always asks for my password at start up, after claiming that it can't connect to iCloud account "MobileMe". I enter the password and everything is fine. Everything should have been enabled when the install took place, and of course, I have verified that the iCloud account settings seem to be correct. I have also tried resetting and repairing Keychain, to no avail.

Are there tips that someone could provide for how to avoid this inconvenience?

Thanks

MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 3, 2013 5:27 AM

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Answer 1

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Nov 4, 2013 9:05 AM in response to psutoad

Hi psutoad,

If Mail keeps asking you for your Keychain password (it was unclear if it was prompting you for the Keychain or the email account password), you may find the following article helpful (it is aimed at Mountain Lion, but the steps should be similar in Mavericks):

Mail (Mountain Lion): If Mail keeps asking for your keychain password

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11785

You may also want to check to make sure that the access settings for Mail haven't been inadvertently changed:

OS X Mavericks: Allow apps to access your keychain

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13737

Regards,

- Brenden

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Answer 2

psutoad Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 4, 2013 5:58 PM in response to brenden dv

Thanks for the advice Brenden. It doesn't appear to be a keychain issue, though I tried both of those suggestions. It actually is starting to look like an Apple ID issue. My apple ID is a mac.com address, but it appears that some apps are looking for me.com addresses instead. I followed a different thread and deleted my iCloud account from my mac, then recreated the account, and so far it's behaving BETTER, but not perfectly. The Internet Accounts pref panel will not show that Mail is checked for my iCloud account. I can click the check box to enable it, but it will only show that it's "setting up", then reverts back to an unchecked box. That said, Mail seems to have stopped asking me for my password everytime I start the application new.

So, long story short, the most annoying behavior has stopped for now, but there still seems to be something off about the iCloud account.

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Answer 3

Nov 27, 2013 1:31 AM in response to psutoad

Hi psutoad,

I've had the same problem. Solved it as follows:

- open Apple Mail

- open Mail -> Preferences

- choose your iCloud account

- select register Advanced

- select Authentication=Apple Token

Should work now.

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Answer 4

Dec 16, 2013 6:39 PM in response to kunibert0815

Thank you kunibert - I was having the same issue and this fixed it. Appreciate the help!

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Answer 5

Dec 18, 2013 5:08 AM in response to kunibert0815

My problem is Mavericks Mail on my Mac mini won't even let me see my iCloud accounts, even though it's not giving me any errors when I attempt to add them.

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Answer 6

Dec 25, 2013 5:23 PM in response to Norton Chia

Norton, this is my exact same problem, even though I'm using Maverick on a MacbookPro. Mail lets me do everything (apparently) to add the account but doesn't actually add it. All I see is are the Yahoo accounts in Preferences, the iCloud address doesn't appear at all.

Message was edited by: fiddlledad

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Answer 7

Dec 29, 2013 5:27 PM in response to kunibert0815

I have no idea why this change is needed, but it worked. Thanks kunibert!

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Answer 8

Dec 29, 2013 11:15 PM in response to fiddlledad

It's not my main machine, so I haven't been too bothered by it. Tried a second iCloud account now it won't let me remove it from System Preferences. Tells me to delete it from within Mail's Preferences, but of course the iCloud account is not there!

What I've done is to copy the Mail folder from another Mac so at least Mail would work for the time being. I think I'll try to erase and install the mini from scratch when I get a chance, or try yet again with the next full Mavericks update.

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Answer 9

Jan 1, 2014 1:16 AM in response to kunibert0815

Selecting the apple token option in authentication seems to have done the trick for me too. Thanks kunibert0815!

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Answer 10

Jan 15, 2014 6:37 PM in response to kunibert0815

Thank kunibert, changing to Authentication=Apple Token WORKED!!...This is so intuitively obvious...I guess the folks that dreamed up Mavericks knew we would be able to figure this out on our own. I think it is time to short Apple stock...

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Answer 11

Jan 21, 2014 3:19 PM in response to kunibert0815

This just started happening to me after installing an update that was just supposed to affect Aperture/iPhoto RAW. When I followed your instructions Apple Token isn't an option, all I see is:

External TLS Client Certificate
Kerberos Version 5
NTLM
MDS Challenge-Response
Password

Other ideas?

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Answer 12

Jan 21, 2014 9:36 PM in response to Mike Lipay

Mike, looks like you haven't selected your iCloud account in Preferences. These are Live or Gmail settings. See below screenshot

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Answer 13

Jan 22, 2014 3:23 AM in response to Paparelli

Wrong, I did. I had to contact Apple Support for this, they had me delete my account then add it back in, that is when Apple Token appeared as an option. Apparently, Maverick's install has an issue when updating from an OS older than 10.8.

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Answer 14

Jan 28, 2014 6:26 AM in response to kunibert0815

I'm using 10.8.5 and I don't see a register advanced option within the preferences after selecting my iCloud account. Is this an option only available to Maverick?

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Answer 15

Redux

Level 1

15 points

Jan 28, 2014 7:21 AM in response to kunibert0815

Thanks, your post solved the Mail problem on OS X 10.9.1.

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