High Sierra SMTP Server list cannot be cleared

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Level 1

16 points

High Sierra SMTP Server list cannot be cleared

One of my mail accounts has changed and I tried to modify the settings. I cannot modify the smtp settings so I removed the account completely. Then I recteated the mail account from scratch but the smtp settings can’t be saved. I also have 8 smtp entries that cannot be modified or even deleted. After deletion they disappear in the list but after restarting mail they appear again. I can‘t find a plist file or any other settings file where I could modify this manually. All I can say is that if I create a new user account on my mac everything looks fine there. But this is not my first option because it would take days to build everything up when using a new mac account. Any suggestions?

Posted on Dec 25, 2017 12:20 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Robb Allan

Level 2

374 points

Jan 27, 2018 7:18 PM in response to Robb Allan

However, I believe I have found the source of the problem. Apparently, the iCloud-synced keychain maintains a copy of deleted SMTP servers even after they are "deleted" in Mail – but they are hidden in the "normal" view of Keychain Access, which prevents them from being found and deleted directly. As a result, they keep being added back to Mail's default SMTP servers whenever syncing of keychains is enabled.

To find them in Keychain Access, you have to enable "View -> Show Invisible Items" and look for items named "com.apple.account.SMTP.asynchost". (It may also be necessary to find items named "com.apple.account.SMTP.accountsync".) Check which ones contain the offending STMP server (at this point the Find field should work to locate them). Quit Mail, then delete them. Enable keychain syncing. When you re-launch Mail, the SMTP servers should finally be gone.

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Answer 2

Jan 27, 2018 8:32 AM in response to Alexm87

I have the same problem and can confirm that the problem originates with cloud-syncing of the keychain. I had created a mail account to a subdomain that auto-created a smtp server entry, but after deleting the account, have not been able to delete the smtp server. I have tried everything I could think of: disk utility, safe booting, deleting and re-creating all the email accounts, etc., etc. ONLY after disabling Keychain as a syncable iCloud feature was I able to delete the server. AFTER re-enabling Keychain in iCloud, the server re-appeared.

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Answer 3

i_rina

Community Specialist

Dec 26, 2017 1:37 PM in response to cschwerdtner

Hey cschwerdtner,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. I can see you have a peculiar issue with the SMTP settings for a certain email account that you use with the stock Mail app. I also see that you've tried some great troubleshooting step by testing this in a new user account to help isolate this issue to the original account. You mentioned that when you delete the settings for your SMTP entries that they re-appear when you restart the Mail app. Have you tried to restart the Mac completely since you had this issue? If not, let's try that next but this time let's restart and boot into safe mode.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

If you're able to save these changes here, try to reboot normally and see if you're able to add this email account without issue and let me know how it turns out.

Regards

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Answer 4

Alexm87

Community Specialist

Jan 2, 2018 7:43 AM in response to cschwerdtner

Hey cschwerdtner,

Thanks for trying that. At this point, we'd like to have you reach out to Apple Support to further work on getting this issue resolved. Please reach out directly to Contact Support .

Take care.

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Answer 5

cschwerdtner Author

Level 1

16 points

Dec 28, 2017 6:51 AM in response to i_rina

Hi i_rina,

I did some more tests and found some severe problems. As I stated before I created a new user account on my Mac and found no problems at first. But then I added iCloud to this new account and I activated the iCloud keychain. From this moment the problem occurred again. The smtp server list shows a lot of ghost smtp server entries that might be activated years ago. So I thought these server settings should be visible in keychain app. In fact I can't find them in keychain. When I remove the smtp server from the list manually by pressing the minus button, it reappears later a few seconds or minutes. I also cannot make any changes to these entries. Username and password are not stored there, when I try to fill that info it is not saved.

Any ideas?

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Answer 6

donT48

Level 1

4 points

Feb 26, 2018 4:45 AM in response to cschwerdtner

This worked for me, thanks for the tip

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