How do I recover my email password from Mail?

Question

Level 1

6 points

How do I recover my email password from Mail?

I have my gmail email address set up in Apple Mail, on my computer running OS X 10.11.14. I have forgotten my email password as I never log onto my email on the website anymore. I have tried to recover my password through Google's forgot password methods, but I also no longer have the phone number that I had when I set up two factor authentication. How can I recover my email password from Mail? I've gone into Keychain Access, and looked there for the application password associated with my email account. When I try to access that, and click on the checkmark box beside show password, it doesn't give me anything. I'm tying in the correct admin password there. What am I doing wrong? How do I find my password?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 7, 2016 12:40 PM

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Answer 1

May 7, 2016 12:55 PM in response to bapps

Most of the time if you had auto sign with your password, they are in you keychain can can be viewed there. Even if mail is asking for your passwords(which it does time to time and is a bug) Have not been running 10.11.4 long enough to know yet if it still drops the password.

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Answer 2

bapps Author

Level 1

6 points

May 8, 2016 10:14 AM in response to mini201200

Fortunately Mail has not had me re-enter my password. My password does seem to be known by Mail, but I can't seem to figure out how to retrieve it from that particular app. I'm trying to get it through Keychain, but I'm not able to. I know the problem is probably user error, as I believe that it is probably retrievable from there.

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Answer 3

May 9, 2016 3:03 AM in response to bapps

Historically such passwords would have been in the users login keychain but these days there is usually an additional keychain called 'local items' and this is now the one to look in.

It would be of 'kind' Internet Password, and likely named something like 'imap.gmail.com'.

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Answer 4

Rysz

Level 8

44,443 points

May 7, 2016 12:50 PM in response to bapps

You did everything right. At this point you'll have to contact Gmail support directly.

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Answer 5

bapps Author

Level 1

6 points

May 8, 2016 10:12 AM in response to Rysz

I've tried going the gmail route, and they have been nothing but unhelpful. This is why I'm trying to get my password from my keychain. Thanks though!

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

May 8, 2016 11:50 AM in response to bapps

Have you checked each of the keychains in Keychain Access? If you are syncing your keychain with iCloud, check the iCloud list?

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