Why does Mail say 'account already exists' when I'm setting up email account?

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Level 1

13 points

Why does Mail say 'account already exists' when I'm setting up email account?

I am reinstalling a hotmail email account on Mail on my desktop. I got the message that 'this account already exists' and was stopped from doing the set up. The email account is not listed in my mailboxes or in the internet accounts section.

It is my appleID though...could that be causing my problems?

It works fine on my other device (iphone 5) just not working on iMac

I have been troubleshooting a password error problem this email account has using the help from on this thread

Password for email account can't be changed in Internet Accounts

delete and re-install was the last solution I was offered.

Help appreciated 🙂

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), Mail 9.3

Posted on Mar 17, 2018 4:33 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Mar 17, 2018 9:25 AM in response to Crocnposs

Try Mail/Preferences/Accounts /Account Information. Select an account, then go to Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP). From the drop down menu select Edit SMPT server list. See if the account is listed there. If so, delete the SMTP server for the account. Try to add the Mail account again.

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