mobile me incoming server not selectable

MobileMe is iCloud. What I asked was to see if you had an old MobileMe SMTP server left in the list of servers (Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Account Information>SMTP Server List).

Also, since you see iCloud in the Accounts List, click on the iCloud account (SystemPreferences>either iCloud Pane or Internet Accounts Pane). Is the Mail box enabled? If so, uncheck it. See if that removes it from Mail's connection doctor.

No need to apologize for slow replies. I'm not always sitting at my computer anyway.

You never know if upgrading will fix anything. Best to try to identify exactly what you problem is before. For the moment, I'd like to see you get rid of the MobileMe server showing since you indicated you are not using iCloud email.

For the MobileMe account showing in the Accounts window of Mail preference, since it has an iCloud server listed in the window, but none in the edit list, that tells me it was created properly by the iCloud integration. I'm not sure how it works in Mavericks now. Things may have changed. The only way to remove the account from the mail list in Yosemite is to log out of iCloud completely from the iCloud pane in System Preferences. It will remove the account from mail's account list. When you log back into iCloud, don't enable Mail in the checklist and it should not reappear.

It really shouldn't be a problem just leaving it in the list disabled. Just bugs me that you get a server failure to this with Connection Doctor.

For the Cox account, it didn't work with the new user account you tested it in. Therefore, it shouldn't be a problem with your user account.

It wasn't a global permission issue.

You see the activity window processes going through the motions when you hit get mail, so that seems to be working. Connection Doctor shows you are connected to the servers OK.

Since you started having problems with it in Entourage and can't get it to work properly with Outlook or Mail, maybe it's just an issue with COX and not with your computer.

If it were a problem with something corrupted in your computer, you would need to reinstall the OS which will be a bit of work to do. It would be easier to test by setting up the account on another apple computer before going through all that hassle of reinstalling the OS which may give no results.

Upgrading to Yosemite instead of reinstalling Mavericks may solve the problem is it is something in the OS, but I wouldn't do that unless I really wanted to upgrade the OS.

Don't know what else to tell you except hopefully someone using Mavericks and familiar with Cox email will chime in with some suggestions.

If you are using a Time Machine backup, you would boot to the Recovery Drive, and you can restore the whole system from the point in time of your choosing. Other backups like cloned drives can only go back to the point in time it was created.

You could also boot into the recovery drive, and reinstall the OS over the existing OS. That would leave your user account intact. I assume your user account is fine since it didn't work in the new user you created for testing. You would need an internet connection to download it.

In fact, you could probably just go to the App Store and redownload Mavericks and just follow the installation procedures.

You could also create a bootable flash drive to make reinstallation a bit easier and faster. Once the drive is created, you would boot from it and reinstall the OS. http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install -drive.html

This advantage of this option is you won't need to download the software again and will have it for future use if needed.

Many providers seem to work better with iOS devices or other phones over apple computers. But yes, it could be an OS issue.

One other question. Now I see you have an iPhone. Is you computer and phone set up as IMAP or POP? Since you are using multiple devices, you should have both set up as IMAP so they will work together.

If your setup is POP and it is set to remove messages from the server once downloaded, then the other devices won't have access to those messages. So if your phone accesses the message first and downloads to the phone and it gets erased from the server, then no message will download to the server. This is probably not your case since it worked before, but I'm just throwing in my thoughts.

Let me know how it works out. Hopefully the re-installation works. I'm out of ideas.

Sorry to hear that. I was afraid of that was an issue with cox. That's why I didn't want to advise you to do a re installation. I didn't think it would work after everything we tried and tested and that takes a good deal of time. Some providers just don't want to work well with apple, even though phone software will work fine. I don't know if it work or not with Yosemite, but you have to deal with the other software issues before updating. It doesn't do you any good to update for one issue when it will create incompatibility issues with other software.

Well 3 email clients didn't work, but you found one that did. That's good. Only other option would be to get with Cox and see if they have a work around to whatever is causing the issue which is possible. Maybe they have a different setting you could use for Mavericks.

BTW: Since you have an Apple ID, you might want to try their email. I've had no problems with it and since it's apple email, I would think that they will not have any major issue with it on apple computers. It's basic email, but it works. You might just play around with it and see how you like it and if it would suit you needs. In the future when you are comfortable with it, you could switch to it. That's basically what I did over time. Since I use Apple products, made since to me that it would be the most reliable. I still have my old address with ATT, but don't use it as the main one anymore.

Glad to help, but I hate it when we can't find a solution.

Anyway, Good Luck