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4m4rOk Author

Level 1

39 points

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

Hi,

I'm using a MacBook Pro 2014 and recently did a fresh install (= wiped the SSD before installing) of El Capitan. When I wanted to set up my e-mail accounts in Mail it worked fine for the first one, but the other one gives me an "This account already exists."-message. I already checked System Preferences –> Internet Accounts but it's not listed there. I also removed the credentials for the account from my keychain, because I thought it might be an iCloud sync issue. Nothing helped so far.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Luca

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 4, 2015 4:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

nomadic yeti

Level 1

15 points

Posted on Oct 4, 2015 8:42 PM

Out of curiosity, is the email account you're trying to add also the same email address for your Apple ID? I just had the same issue. I had to completely logout of iCloud on the Mac (by going through the "Internet Accounts" preference pane of Settings) before I could add the email account that "already existed". I was able to add the account then, but I wasn't able to log back in to iCloud after that (it said it was already logged in even though no iCloud account showed up on in the preference pane). I then had to leave the "Internet Accounts" preference pane and click on the iCloud preference pane in Settings. Sure enough I was still logged into my iCloud account there. I just had to click on all the programs that I wanted to use iCloud. Everything worked fine after that.

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40 replies

Jun 23, 2016 7:50 AM in response to JDfunky

Thanks Mate! Finally I was able to configure mail Outlook account on mail!

It worked on El Capitain 10.11.5 clean install

Rosefog

Level 1

72 points

Aug 5, 2016 12:01 PM in response to JDfunky

Same problem with El Capitan! Thanks for the solution.

Rlotfi

Level 1

4 points

Oct 12, 2016 8:20 AM in response to 4m4rOk

The account is added to the machine but the machine is not yet allowed to download the mail.

Just go to settings , and under Sync, switch on mail..optionally sync contacts, calendar , etc..

bodileaf

Level 1

16 points

Nov 4, 2016 3:32 AM in response to JDfunky

Perfect. All working now. Thank you 🙂

Jan 12, 2017 6:12 PM in response to JDfunky

I can't thank you enough. 3 hours of trying to add my hotmail account back with no luck until I came upon your easy instructions.

Thank you, again.

Apr 30, 2017 9:35 AM in response to nomadic yeti

Thank you so much. That was the problem for me too. Big relief!

May 30, 2017 10:15 PM in response to JDfunky

This worked! Thanks so much - super helpful!

Aug 7, 2017 1:45 AM in response to nomadic yeti

I have iCloud Drive with 400GB up in the cloud. So signing out of iCloud is not an option :..(

TBade

Level 1

12 points

Aug 20, 2017 3:36 AM in response to 4m4rOk

Why guys,

Your answer helped me out as well just now. Thanks for sharing and especially taking the time to reply with that knowledge.

Oct 10, 2017 6:22 PM in response to 4m4rOk

Actually, there is a much simple way if it is gmail. You can go to System Pref. , go to accounts, and click google, and check off the mail. It should work alright...

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