mail says "this account already exists" but it's nowhere to find

Finally solve it !!!

This solution is for the MacOS Sierra, I do not know if it is working for previous versions also ...

Accounts information are stored in <user>/Library/Accounts/Accounts3.sqlite and Accounts4.sqlite files.

Make a backup of those files in case something is going wrong.

So:

1) download "DB Browser for SQLite" from http://sqlitebrowser.org/ and run it

2) open the "Accounts3.sqlite" file (if you can not see the "Library" folder, open a terminal and execute : "chflags nohidden ~/Library" command)

2) go to "Browse Data" tab

3) from the pull down menu underneath, select "ZACCOUNT" and sort by "ZUSERNAME" (by clicking on top of the column)

4) delete any rows related with the problematic account (select the rows and hit the "Delete Record" button)

5) click the "Write Changes" button

5) repeat the process for the Accounts4.sqlite file

DONE ! now you can add the account in Mail app without any issue 🙂 .

I had a similar problem which had a different answer. The error message was coming up and. whilst I could see the mail account in the list of accounts, it didn't show on the list of inboxes in the mail sidebar and none of the mails for that account was listed.

I deleted the account within Mail and then recreated it. Everything was then fine

Hi,

I am really greatful for finding this thread, because I had exactly the same issue.

I had to change the email login to my email provider (now full email address instead of account id), but I could not change because of error message "this account already exists".

So I thought I just thought I remove it and add it once more. No success: "this account already exists".

Thanks to this thread I have resolved it by deactivating icloud.

Very depressing that this issue exists since more than 1 year still in the latest OSX release. Very, very stupid bug to conflict with the iCloud account ID and it seems to cost many people a lot of time.

Apple guys, you really gotta fix this.

We tried this multiple times and it did not work, we finally took the tip to "fake out" the new account function, entering in wrong credentials and a screen popped up and asked us to manually enter the IMAP and SMTP addressses. We used the proper email credentials (that had been rejected multiple times) and this time it worked.

Note to COMCAST users, log into you Comcast account via comcast and clear out your inbox if you don't want it to dump your entire inbox onto MAC mail. You can just create a folder on comcast and move them or you could delete before setting up the email account.

I had the same problem for the same issue, problem solved, Apple shame

Thank you . You're a life saver

Thanks! That worked for me!

Thanks a lot and shame on Apple for ignoring this bunch of bugs for three or more months.

It took me many hours to struggle with mail and iCloud preferences and finally to find this hint.

We shouldn't have to contend with these kind of workarounds. Fix it, Apple!

Thank you! Hours of aggravation solved in minutes.

Thank you for the answer. This worked great. Too bad we even have to deal with this.

Thanks

Great Solution. Life-saver

Very helpful. I had tried to remove all remnants of the mail account in the Library and wasn't able to make it work.

Who'd have thought that my iCloud account would get in the way. Thanks!

Thanks for asking this question. The response that was given WORKED!!!!