apple mail userid / password not recognized

Question

apple mail userid / password not recognized

With two e-mail addresses in an earthlink web hosting account, the POP account setups in Apple Mail are identical except the difference in the two e-mail addresses. accounts had worked flawlessly for a long time. One account works without problem. The other e-mail address suddenly started returning an error message that the login to the POP account failed. Apple Mail message under "Connections" is asking to verify the username and password are correct.

After checking the e-mail host account for userid and password, they were correct, and then re-setting the password in the host account. The host account is working without any issue. Apple Mail continues to give the error message.

Continue to be able to receive and send e-mails, under the malfunctioning in Apple Mail e-mail account, but Apple Mail is now deleting the copies of sent and received e-mails. And Apple Mail continues to give the error message "Trying to log into this POP account failed. Verify that the username and password are correct".

I also tried eliminating the POP account giving the error message in Apple Mail and then creating a new one, but all I managed to do apparently was delete the entire history of sent/received e-mails in that account. Error message continued on adding back that POP account to Apple Mail.

I am not seeing a Community for Apple Mail. So this is posting to OS X Mavericks.

Any assist or guidance appreciated.

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Mac Air OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Apr 27, 2015 11:48 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Apr 28, 2015 12:25 PM in response to Michael Fallow

Try deleting the password for the non-functioning account in Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access. While there, Keychain Access menu/First Aid.

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Answer 2

May 9, 2015 1:46 AM in response to Eric Root

I would like to update this topic for anyone caught in this nightmare, when the usual solutions of double checking your e-mail client's settings, and Keychains do not yield a solution. In fact I would make this the first thing to look for, because the other solutions can be very time consuming even with technical support. Check to see if your address is Blacklisted. You can do this fairly easily by first going to whatismyipaddress.com/ Then to http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check

Turned out I was a victim of a "spoofing" attack: received a reply to a message you never sent and was blacklisted in two spam databases and they were blocking my e-mail address.

I reported this to my e-mail service provider and they followed up on it and got my e-mail address unblocked finally. But I went through 3 different tech support people with their company and even though I made it clear that I had been suspiciously spammed at the time my e-mail became blocked, they doggedly drug me through outgoing and incoming e-mail settings and keychain settings. Bewildering to me in an internet world full of spam that they ignored this, but steadfastly they did.

And no one here in Apple Support Community either, to be complete.

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