MS Exchange mail account no longer connects after installing El Capitan

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1 points

MS Exchange mail account no longer connects after installing El Capitan

My MS exchange mail account worked perfectly all morning, last received message was 2 minutes before I downloaded and installed El Capitan. As soon my mac booted up in El Capitan and mail opened the account showed a connection error and asked me to verify the settings. Even though I assumed that the settings had not changed during the install process I did verify them and they were still correct. I deleted the account and set it up again only to receive the same connection error. Is anyone else experiencing this? Does anyone know of a fix?

OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 30, 2015 2:20 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 30, 2015 2:25 PM in response to 911guy

This will sound stupid but have you tried connecting via a webmail client? Just to verify that there isn't a problem with the service.

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Answer 2

911guy Author

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1 points

Sep 30, 2015 2:30 PM in response to Paul Conaway

I did and it worked fine. My iPhone and iPad are still receiving the mail from the account. Good question though.

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Answer 3

Sep 30, 2015 2:33 PM in response to 911guy

Can you ping the exchange server from your EC mac?

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Answer 4

911guy Author

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Sep 30, 2015 2:49 PM in response to Paul Conaway

Yes

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Answer 5

The Zach

Level 2

434 points

Sep 30, 2015 5:34 PM in response to 911guy

I don't use MS Exchange, but none of my email accounts work on Mail after upgrading to El Capitan. They all worked fine this morning. And they still work fine on my iPhone.

When I opened Mail on my Mac, however, it was prompting me to add my passwords for my email accounts. Then it would crash. I added the passwords via System Preferences > Internet Accounts's password prompt, but they were all rejected. I then entered them in the Password cell and got no error messages. Mail, however, still crashes when I open it.

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Answer 6

Sep 30, 2015 7:06 PM in response to 911guy

I'm having the same problem - Mail works fine with all my other email accounts (Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo) but not with my Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail) account. When I opened Mail for the first time, I got the prompt to input the password, but no matter how many times I enter it, it reports that it cannot verify it.

I even tried generating a new app password just for Mail (I have two-step authorization turned on, so I need to generate unique passwords for apps that cannot deal with two-step authorization) but that didn't help, either.

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Answer 7

Sep 30, 2015 7:10 PM in response to mitchwnyc

Just got it to work -- instead of going to Mail | Accounts (which opened the Internet Accounts preference pane), I went to Mail | Preferences (which opened the Mail Preferences dialog box) and entered the password there. Now it works. Go figure.

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Answer 8

Drgeert

Level 1

5 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:03 AM in response to mitchwnyc

Hmmm, tried this but does not help here.

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Answer 9

911guy Author

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1 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:13 AM in response to Drgeert

I tried that as well, with no luck. I have deleted the account and re-added it multiple times, I have put in an incorrect password during the setup process to get access to more "manual settings" and verified they were all correct, I can ping the server with no issues, it has to be a bug somewhere in the mail program that affects its ability to "see" exchange. If Apple wants a bigger presence in corporate America it really should integrate email better. I remember having this same issue a couple of OSX's ago, it was fixed within a month or so, but that was a long month.

I wish there was a way to revert back to the last version of mail without giving up El Cap, i wonder if just restoring it from a Time Machine backup would work?

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Answer 10

dwb

Level 7

33,286 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:25 AM in response to 911guy

Before blaming Apple, determine what version of Exchange is being used in the enterprise. I was surprised to discover just how old the exchange server is where I work (Mail isn’t compatible with it) and now I understand why everyone uses web access at work.

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Answer 11

911guy Author

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1 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:36 AM in response to dwb

You are correct that I should do verify before blaming Apple, I have, just didn't mention it above. We are using exchange 2010 sp3, and according to Apple our version of exchange is supported. My point was it worked perfectly 2 minutes before downloading el cap and didn't work upon rebooting. I love Apple products and support them frequently with my hard earned dollars, but if they don't know it's not broke they can't fix it, and I really need my email to work if I am to continue earning my dollars. I apologize if I came off as a hater, I really didn't mean to, I just want to fix my mail and get on with my life.

now back to my last question, does anyone think mail would work if I just restored the version I was running before el cap?

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Answer 12

Oct 1, 2015 8:38 AM in response to 911guy

It is not only exchange servers it's also Commungate servers as well. And probably more to come

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Answer 13

dwb

Level 7

33,286 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:45 AM in response to 911guy

No problem - its just that I know there are really really old Exchange Servers still being used. IT folk truly believe in not fixing what isn’t broke!

I hope I’m not slamming the barn door shut with the horse already gone….do you have a backup of your system before the upgrade? If you use TimeMachine don’t let it backup with the upgrade - that makes things very very difficult for reverting. If you have a backup it is easy to go backwards and yes, things will work again. It is why I always back up using CarbonCopyCloner before I upgrade. This gives me a drive I can boot with and get back to work if my due diligence wasn’t enough.

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Answer 14

911guy Author

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1 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:49 AM in response to dwb

I agree, they tend not to fix anything that is working well for them, end users be danged, but if it quits working for them - Nellie bar the door!

I really don't want to restore my entire system, just the mail program, but I don't know if the old yosemite version will work with el cap. I don't know if the change that is causing the problem is in the mail program or the OS. I could just try it, but I was sort of hoping someone else already had and could tell me if it worked.

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Answer 15

dwb

Level 7

33,286 points

Oct 1, 2015 8:51 AM in response to 911guy

I’d be surprised if the old Mail program works, let alone solves the problem. Apple’s programs tend to be tied into the OS at very low levels.

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