Apple Mail - AOL account password compromised

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Level 1

18 points

Apple Mail - AOL account password compromised

When verizon stopped providing email service and transferred the accounts @verizon.net to AOL, I wasn't happy, but it worked so I didn't bother changing services. With each upgrade in both AOL and Mac OS, it has gotten buggier and now one of my AOL mail accounts password has been compromised. I only access my AOL mail using the Apple Mail program.

I received a notification from Experian that my one account was compromised. I went online to AOL and changed my password and checked the box that prevents access from insecure apps. Well, voila, now Apple Mail no longer is able to access my AOL mail.

I have looked and can't find any other settings within Apple Mail that would help. Any suggestions on what to do would be appreciated. Thank you.

Joe

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), 4GHz i7, 32GB SDRAM, 1TB Fusion HD

Posted on Apr 30, 2018 6:57 AM

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Answer 1

HCRX Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 30, 2018 9:40 AM in response to KiltedTim

Thanks for responding.

Just so I understand - are you saying that in addition to my AOL account password, I need to create a unique password for each app, such as Apple Mail, that access my AOL mail account?

I have multiple email accounts with AOL, all previously with verizon. Only one of them isn't working. None of them have an app-specific password.

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,657 points

Apr 30, 2018 9:53 AM in response to HCRX

If you enable enhanced security on your AOL account, then yes. That's what you have to do. That's how you stop accounts from being compromised.

Of course, the better option might just be to dump AOL email entirely and switch to something else... Outlook.com, Gmail, iCloud... take your pick. Just avoid yahoo as their security is pretty much non-existent. The fallout from having over 3 Billion accounts compromised sill hasn't really settled yet.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,045 points

Apr 30, 2018 10:00 AM in response to HCRX

Preventing access from insecure apps is set on an account basis. If you didn't change the other accounts, they wouldn't be affected by the change in the one account.

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,657 points

Apr 30, 2018 6:59 AM in response to HCRX

You need to create an app specific password for your AOL account if you want to access it. That's done at AOL. It has nothing to do with Apple or the mail app specifically.

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Apple Mail - AOL account password compromised

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