Cannot remove account from System Preferences>Internet Accounts

Question

Level 1

6 points

Cannot remove account from System Preferences>Internet Accounts

Hi all,

I have asked this question before, but unfortunately no answer has emerged yet.

I had an Exchange account that I had been using for years. Recently, I switched jobs, and therefore the Exchange account was discontinued (i.e. my user was deleted from the server, emails bounce). BUT I cannot remove this obsolete account from my System Preferences > Internet Accounts. It drives me crazy. Whenever I hit the "-" minus button, the account disappears, but whenever I open Internet Accounts again, it's right back in its place. Apple Mail keeps complaining that it "cannot connect to the server", but won't let me delete the account.

Any help would be appreciated. I really don't understand why such a simple/obvious task doesn't seem to work.

Thanks and cheers.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 2, 2014 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

213JB

Level 2

385 points

Jun 2, 2014 9:08 AM in response to knostrov

Click on Go in the menu bar. Hold down option and your hidden Library will show up, click on it.

In your Library goto the Preferences folder.

Locate the file below and move it to the desktop .

com.apple.internetaccounts.plist.

Reboot and test.

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Jun 2, 2014 9:15 AM in response to knostrov

Do Exchange accounts also use Contacts & Calendar syncing?

If that is the case open each of these apps & delete the account in the Prefereneces there too. Also check Reminders, Notes & Messages apps for the same account.

I don't know why we need the duplicate 'Internet accounts' for things setup within Apple apps, it seems redundant to me too.

The other possibility is that the account is configured by a profile or 'managed settings' from a company account? Do you have either of these…

A 'Profiles' section of System Preferences?
Open /Applications/Utilities/System Information, click system report, look for 'Managed Client' under System Information, is there anything listed there?

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Answer 3

knostrov Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 2, 2014 9:29 AM in response to 213JB

@213JB: Thanks much for your reply. I did as you said... but unfortunately it did not change anything. I still cannot remove the account.

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Answer 4

knostrov Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 2, 2014 9:32 AM in response to Drew Reece

@Drew: I checked, and this account does not show up under "Managed Client" and there is no "Profiles" section in System Preferences.

It does not show up in Contacts or Reminders or Calendar... just under Mail. When I try to remove it from mail, I get the following message:

Account removal failed with error: “The operation couldn’t be completed. Unable to find an account for the UID given.”.

Any thoughts? Thanks a lot.

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Answer 5

knostrov Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 2, 2014 9:52 AM in response to knostrov

Ah OK. Thanks guys you helped bring me on the right track. In the end, what solved the problem was.

1. Open terminal, log on as root.

2. rm -rf /Users/`whoami`/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

Finally the account is gone! I am free! Yay! 🙂

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Answer 6

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Jun 2, 2014 9:59 AM in response to knostrov

eek, nuke it – yep that will work too 🙂

I'd run the 'user permissions repair' since the UID sounds like it is related to the user accounts UID?

Boot holding cmd+R. Recovery mode should startup (assuming you have a recovery partition).

Select Terminal from the Utilities menu.

Enter the word…

resetpassword

… & hit return.

The GUI app will open, select the main boot HD.

Select your user account in the popup menu.

Then click the Reset button at the bottom right. It will "Reset Home Folder Permissions & ACL's"

Repeat for the other users.

Quit ResetPassword from the menu,

Quit Terminal

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Answer 7

knostrov Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 2, 2014 10:09 AM in response to Drew Reece

Thanks, I will try this. Haha, I guess I nuked it without knowing what I was doing. 🙂 Sweet ignorance!

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