Ghost Email Account - Can't Find Or Delete

Got any iOS or Android or other devices that are active, and that are configured for that email address?

Try going to Mail/Preferences/Accounts/Account Information/Outgoing mail server (SMTP) and the click the dropdown menu to select Edit SMTP Server list. Look for a server that corresponds to the account that you incorrectly set up. If found, delete it.

Have backups before making changes — Time Machine or other form. More than a few folks here don't have Time Machine or some other backup tool configured and running, and that's putting your data at risk.

As for the changes, there may well be more than one entry found in the list of SMTP servers. You can remove the entry within the list of SMTP servers. You'll usually want to remove all but one entry associated with the particular pair of account and server within the list of SMTP servers. Worst case, you remove it and have to add it back in, or you remove it and remove and re-add the account.

Mail.app — and mail in general — involves two separate sets of credentials, the one that everybody sees that controls the POP or IMAP access and the server name and ports and the username and password that is associated with receiving and sending mail via the POP or IMAP server, and the second set of credentials for the SMTP server — which can be a separate username and password and an entirely separate SMTP server, etc — that controls sending out SMTP mail. It's the latter credentials that Eric Root is referencing.

You are welcome. You should be able to.

Look for an entry for the POP or IMAP server with the wrong credentials, too.

I'd probably change the Wi-Fi password, and see if that prevents the lock-out, too. That'll force re-entering the credentials on all other local devices, but before that happens you can see whether there are still account failures happening, or not. If the failures are happening, they're arising from the device(s) that have your new Wi-Fi password.

Climbgal wrote:

Thanks for all of your help Mr. Hoffman and Eric.

I did have a question about where I should look for an "entry for the POP or IMAP server with the wrong credentials, too?"

Thanks again!

The POP and IMAP credentials are the ones you can see by default, for each Mail account.

Mail > Preferences > Accounts > select each account in turn > Account Information.

If the entry doesn't indicate the "Account Type" is a POP or IMAP account at the top of the account information, ignore it.

If it's a POP or IMAP account, then see if it's associated with your mail server. If it is, make sure the password is correct.

Also check whether there's something else using the same server, such as Notes.

 > System Preferences > Accounts.

Scroll down through the list of accounts there, selecting each in turn, and see if there are any that are using the same (problematic) mail server. You may or will have to click on the Advanced button for each entry, to see the server information.

Climbgal wrote:

I did find an account under  > System Preferences > Internet-Wireless > Mail, Contacts, Calendars that matched the one that was setup with the wrong user name. The Account was marked as active in "Notes" only (and not Mail).

Notes are stored on the specified mail server. That's almost certainly your culprit, or at least one of the culprits — if there's another account around.