Can't add accounts in Mail - stuck on "Next"

Same Problem. Found the problem (In my case). I had the perpetual "next" button when trying to add an exchange account that I had deleted. 7 hours with Apple support, dozens of different things tried (a few are on this board). This is what worked.

1. Go to user accounts and create a brand new user "test admin" - make it an administrator obviously.

2. Re-start, and log into the test admin account

3. Go to "iCloud" under "system preferences", add your iCloud account under which you have been having problems.

4. Re-start the computer, log back into the test account, go back to iCloud, log out, and log back in

5. Go to "Internet Accounts" under system preferences and attempt to add the problem account. If it won't install, stop reading (you have a different problem than I do)

6. If it works, then you may have the issue that I did.

7. Oddly, the problem was within my "Keychain" - there were conflicting account status within Keychain, and the conflict was sending me through the "next" loop.

8. Log into your original account

9. Finder, Go, "option key" (this shows the "Library" folder), Keychains folder in Library

10. Inside the Keychains folder there are at least two files that conflict with one another. We deleted them all.

11. Restart the computer, log into your original account, Log in and out of your iCloud account, go to Internet Accounts and try to add the problem email or exchange account. In my case, Success!

Good Luck.

Update:

Apparently, I got back my 2nd mail. I made some experimenting on the keychain folder and drag every contents therein (including sub-folders) to the Desktop in case another thing failed.

After that, I restart my mac and go to Systems Pref > Internet Accounts without opening any apps. An iMessage window popped-up saying that I need to log-in my password, but I ignore that and drag the pop-up window aside.

Then I

add the problem email, input my password, select only mail (no other apps), and then, poof, it pass thru the “Next” Button Loop. I now have my 2nd email back in my mac native mail app.

It seems the problem is in the Keychain Folder itself when you are updating your OSX (mine is now Mojave).

Only thing is that I had to sign in again to my iMessage account since the whole keychain folder content is dragged out. But its ok for me since its working now.

I had the same problem with adding a simple IMAP mail account - "next" button in endless loop, could not create it.

Deleting entries for email in keychain did not help.

I took a backup of the user keychain files ~/Library/Keychains

Then followed advice from ED in PA:

1. Open the Keychain Access utility in your Applications folder.

2. In the "Keychain Access" dropdown list, open "Preferences..."

3. Click "Reset My Default Keychains" and follow the prompts.

4. Restart your computer.

Now it was possible to create the mailbox and all old mails was loaded.

But all passwords were lost.

So I imported a backup file by "Add keychain". It seems it does not restore the passwords, but I can look them up in the imported keychain in Keychain app.

(My mac has Norwegian interface, so some of the terme may be misspelled)

I just ran into this when adding a new email account for a new domain and I found a way that worked for me without removing or resetting keychains. I just manually added the account information to my keychain.

1. Open the Keychain Access Utility.
2. Under "File" click "New Password Item"
3. Fill in the incoming server information
   1. Keychain Item Name: com.apple.account.IMAP.password
   2. Account Name: emailaddress@incomingserver
   3. Password: email account password.
4. Repeat step 3 for the Outgoing Server information changing the Keychain Item Name to: com.apple.account.SMTP.password
5. Add your account through Mac Mail "Mail" -> "Add Account" or -> "Preferences" -> Accounts -> +

Once you go through adding the account information in the various screens and click "Next" a popup will ask you if you want to allow this account to access your keychain. Enter your Administrator password and click "Always Allow"

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

I had the same e-mail adress as my Apple ID (not an @icloud.com address) and I think this caused a conflict. Wha tI did was to remove my iCloud Login on OS X and then reset the OS X Keychain. Also did a reboot for this. After that I added the iCloud account again and it added my third party e-mail account automatically. Good luck!

jsfromsweden and mth222 solved it for me. I created a new user and was able to create the email account. Logged back in as myself and deleted the keychain files (as I had nothing in there I cared about) . Again, I was able to create the required email account. Thanks to both.

I was having this problem trying to add a mail (not gmail) account just for Notes. In my ~/Library/Keychains folder, I found a subfolder with a long hexadecimal and hyphens name. I deleted that subfolder, logged out, and logged back in. I was then able to add the account, without having lost any passwords from my keychains.

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

Possible eMail fix…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8393897?answerId=250408740022#250408740022

Also...

Cant create re add Mail

James Walker1

User level:

Level 1

(129 points)

Notebooks

Speciality level out of ten: 0

Mar 1, 2019 10:39 AM in response to if240

I was having this problem trying to add a mail (not gmail) account just for Notes.  In my ~/Library/Keychains folder, I found a subfolder with a long hexadecimal and hyphens name.  I deleted that subfolder, logged out, and logged back in.  I was then able to add the account, without having lost any passwords from my keychains.

This worked for me - I renamed my existing keychain folder and then logged out and back in again. I jhad to re-enter all of my saved passwords and sign into everything, but after that it worked.

There's a very simple fix. My problem was the same as the Original Poster: clicking "Next" does nothing.

(Before following these steps, make sure you remember all the passwords for your accounts, because the saved passwords will be deleted.)

This is what worked for me:

1. Open the Keychain Access utility in your Applications folder.

2. In the "Keychain Access" dropdown list, open "Preferences..."

3. Click "Reset My Default Keychains" and follow the prompts.

4. Restart your computer.

You will be prompted to re-enter the passwords for all your e-mail accounts. If you were having trouble adding a new e-mail account, it should work fine now.

As another poster on this thread has mentioned, the problem is a conflict in the keychain, which creates an endless process loop at the "Next" button. The problem gets fixed when you reset the keychain. Using the above steps is safer than going into your keychain library and just deleting a bunch of files.

I have read all the replies queries. here is a conclusion i drew:
you have had your account configured earlier. You were stuck at some point for which you had to reconfigure your accounts back to Apple Mail. But your account fails at a certain step.

can you give one more thing a try?
go to your desktop screen. click on Go>Go to folder

now locate ~/Library/Mail/V5/

You can find a few folders with names as long hexadecimal codes. These are your files that represent the profiles that were ever configured to your Apple mail. move them to trash.

I feel these local files of your emails might be interfering the second time you are configuring your account.

rever to me if that really works. i am just assuming.

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

The hint with the Keychain saved my day.

I have changed the password of my email account, but Mail does not save the new password for the SMTP server. Therefore I removed the email account and tried to add it again, but then it hangs at the window where I selected only to sync my mails and not the notices etc.

I closed Mail and opened Keychain. There I searched for all entries that may relate to the email account and I removed them. Then I started Mail again and adding the email account works fine.