Can't completely remove old email addresses

Question

Can't completely remove old email addresses

I purchased my MacBook Pro from a friend recently. I removed her email accounts from the mac mail, but it still insists on trying to send all of my emails from one of her accounts. I am able to manually change it when I am composing a message, but have almost forgotten on several occasions, which just would not be ok! I have gone into preferences to try and tell it which email address to send new messages from, but in the drop down it only gives me the option of one of hers or "send from selected mailbox" - my email address is not an option as the default, and it still tries to send from hers when I have "selected mailbox" chosen.

I am on a 2011 MacBook Pro running Yosemite 10.10.3

Any ideas?

Posted on May 30, 2015 5:53 PM

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Answer 1

May 30, 2015 5:56 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

Try and remove the old accounts in System Preferences > internet accounts.

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Answer 2

May 30, 2015 6:09 PM in response to Averythomas

They have all been removed from everywhere I can find, the only account showing as actually active is mine so that is where I'm stumped. I just tested it by sending her an email and letting it stay as going from her email address and it did send, so it seems to be holding the info somewhere I can't find. If it wouldn't actually send I wouldnt care!

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,574 points

May 30, 2015 6:09 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

Since a 2011 model did not come with Yosemite installed, did the seller remove Yosemite and wipe the drive? Any OS or app obtained at the app store is tied forever to the Apple ID used to obtain them and the license is not transferable. Judging from your Mail problem, I am assuming the seller did not and you will not be able to update apps or reinstall the OS.

If the seller did not, I'd recommend you use internet recovery (Command + Option + R during startup) until you see a Utilities screen. Choose Disk Utility to erase the drive and when finished, choose to reinstall OS X. That should reinstall the original OS; after that, you can obtain Yosemite using your own Apple ID.

If my assumption is not correct, post back with details; if I am, follow above steps and you will be able to set up Mail in your name once you have the OS reinstalled.

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Answer 4

May 30, 2015 6:29 PM in response to babowa

thanks! I upgraded the OS to Yosemite and haven't had any problems updating other apps etc so I'd assumed she cleaned off everything she needed to, but I will try to start over myself to be on the safe side!

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Answer 5

babowa

Level 9

78,574 points

May 30, 2015 6:43 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

It isn't that she needed to "clean off everything she needed to" - according to the licensing agreement, she had to erase the hard drive completely (remove the OS and any apps). If she did that, then her email address/account shouldn't be present. So, since it's a friend, why don't you ask her to see if she erased the hard drive completely or exactly what she did. All her information should be gone after a complete erase.

In any case, to be sure, just go through the internet recovery, wipe the drive, and reinstall. If you wipe it, it should reinstall the original OS version which will not be tethered to an Apple ID - you will do that during the install process.

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Answer 6

May 30, 2015 6:59 PM in response to babowa

Oh, gotcha. I have tried twice to do the command + option + r during startup and nothing is happening, it just continues on the login screen. Am I missing something else?

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Answer 7

May 30, 2015 7:04 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

Never mind, google to the rescue...it's just cmd + r without option. Thanks again!

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Answer 8

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

May 30, 2015 7:05 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

No, 2 different things, you want Internet Recovery (command-option-R) not Local Recovery (command-R)

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Answer 9

May 30, 2015 7:14 PM in response to Csound1

Thats strange, it was the Apple Support page that said to just use cmd + r to get to internet recovery. I'll keep trying!

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Answer 10

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

May 30, 2015 7:15 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

CinnamonGirlMT wrote:

Thats strange, it was the Apple Support page that said to just use cmd + r to get to internet recovery.

Post the link to that erroneous information here.

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Answer 11

May 30, 2015 7:24 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

Well I got to where I need to be and now it's saying "This item is temporarily unavailable". Hopefully it's a short temporary, I need my computer to work, lol!

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Answer 12

May 30, 2015 7:34 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

I Will try to find the page again for the link, but I was looking in the computer that I just wiped. Figured out the unavailable error as well, so FYI for anyone else who sees this thread....many older macs (such as 2011 models) require a firmware update for the Internet recovery to work properly, found a good thread on it from last year. I'm hoping it will let me restore Yosemite now instead of the original OS or else I'm up a creek (it seemed a running joke in the other thread that this happened to everyone...they found out about the firmware only after wiping their hard drive!)

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Answer 13

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

May 30, 2015 7:36 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

Internet Recovery will restore the version of OS X that was on the Mac when it was new, which won't be Yosemite.

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Answer 14

May 30, 2015 7:36 PM in response to CinnamonGirlMT

SO far it's letting me reinstall Yosemite, keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps cooperating!

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Answer 15

May 30, 2015 7:40 PM in response to Csound1

I can't reinstall that without the firmware, which I can't install without an OS. I had been running Yosemite recently, which is what it gives the option to reinstall using just cmd+r. Both that and cmd+option+r both work and give almost identical utility options. the only difference I found was that just cmd+r reinstalls the current OS while cmd+option+r reinstalls the original OS.

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