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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

Best 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

Tipos

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2016 3:25 AM in response to 4m4rOk

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 🙂 .

bodileaf

Level 1

16 points

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

Perfect. All working now. Thank you 🙂

Dec 2, 2016 7:25 AM in response to 4m4rOk

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

Dec 16, 2016 3:07 PM in response to 4m4rOk

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.

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