Mail can't verify & folders empty

Question

Level 1

29 points

Mail can't verify & folders empty

Hello.

I have two Hotmail/Outlook accounts that today started causing problems. The message showing says that Mail can't verify the identity of the server (which is imp-mail.outlook.com and smtp-mail.outlook.com). It has worked perfectly for years on my iMac, and now I can't retrieve mail or send it without that warning message appearing. Sometimes I can click "Continue" it the email will send - other times not. Also all the folders are suddenly empty of saved messages in one of those account - the other is okay. iCloud mail and my Gmail accounts both send and receive fine.

I've tried to delete one of the accounts (suggested here in Community) and then recreate it, but after putting my username and password (I selected Other mail) I receive a message saying that the server can't be verified.

A screen grab of the message displayed is included. I have no clue whatsoever how to fix this. I hope someone can assist.

Kindest regards, and thanks in advance.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

trevoz

Level 4

1,990 points

Oct 16, 2016 1:08 PM in response to MiskyBr

This is a Globalsign certificate stuffup. To fix it, you can either wait for the revoked certificates to expire from the Mac's certificate database cache (around 24 hours) or open Applications > Utilities > Terminal and paste the following command in the window:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Keychains/*/ocspcache.sqlite3 'DELETE FROM responses WHERE responderURI LIKE "%http://%.globalsign.com/%";'

to remove the Globalsign certificates from your database cache.

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Answer 2

MiskyBr Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 15, 2016 3:38 AM in response to trevoz

Thank you for your reply. May I please ask a few questions, as I'm not familiar with the innards of the OSX.

1. Should the end of that line appear as a URL link, and are those percent signs before and after the address?

2. Will the certificate regenerate (is re-populate the term?), or does it require manual updating?

Again, thank you for your assistance.

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Answer 3

trevoz

Level 4

1,990 points

Oct 15, 2016 1:58 PM in response to MiskyBr

1. Yes - cut and paste the command exactly as show.

2. You don't want those certificates to regenerate. Globalsign accidentally revoked their intermediate certificates which breaks the chain of trust for all sites using their certificates.

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Answer 4

MiskyBr Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 16, 2016 3:10 AM in response to trevoz

Hello, and again thank you.

I pasted that line into the terminal window (which had a white background - thought it should be black), and nothing happened. So I hit return, and still nothing happened. So I looked at keychain, and I can see this morning that the old *.hotmail certificate no longer has a red X and says that it's valid. I'm not entirely positive, but I think that certificate is sitting in the System or maybe System Roots? I'm not sure exactly what to do, now that the certificate looks valid again.

Should I leave it be?

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