Mail.app keeps asking for account password?

[withnail]

I have a problem with Mail.app that has been intermittent, but has become more of a permanent fixture lately. When I go to check e-mail on any of my POP accounts, I get a pop-up saying "Enter Password for Account [my email]", and it goes on to say that the POP server rejected the password and gives me a check box to remember the password in Keychain.

I know the password I'm entering to be correct, and if I quit Mail and restart, it will solve the problem...for a bit. If I try to enter the password when the dialog box prompts me for it, it will just keep appearing and saying that the server has rejected the password.

Any ideas?

[DerekS]

I'll bet the issue is that your stored password in the keychain is incorrect.

Go spark up Keychain Access, find and delete the mail password for the offending account, then reconfigure it.

[withnail]

Originally Posted by DerekS

I'll bet the issue is that your stored password in the keychain is incorrect.

Go spark up Keychain Access, find and delete the mail password for the offending account, then reconfigure it.

No go. I've already tried that - about a million times.

This is happening on both of the accounts I have set up through Mail, and like I said it has been intermittent, until lately. Just this morning, I deleted the entry from Keychain, and that fixed it, but only for about 5 minutes.

[GeekLawyer]

I've been having the same problem on my iMac. I was thinking that maybe it has something to do with my iPhone also pulling mail from the same account. But there's no problem on the MacBook. I'm a little stumped.

Originally Posted by withnail

No go. I've already tried that - about a million times.

This is happening on both of the accounts I have set up through Mail, and like I said it has been intermittent, until lately. Just this morning, I deleted the entry from Keychain, and that fixed it, but only for about 5 minutes.

[jalagl]

That happens to me when I have network connection issues (ie: when bittorrent is maxing out my connection). My theory is that mail.app is a bit sensitive about bandwidth. If I shut BT down it is able to connect normally.

I have no idea why this happens, though.

[withnail]

Originally Posted by GeekLawyer

I've been having the same problem on my iMac. I was thinking that maybe it has something to do with my iPhone also pulling mail from the same account. But there's no problem on the MacBook. I'm a little stumped.

What's strange is I've been having this problem long before I got the iPhone, its just that it's become more commonplace since then...

Originally Posted by jalagl

That happens to me when I have network connection issues (ie: when bittorrent is maxing out my connection). My theory is that mail.app is a bit sensitive about bandwidth. If I shut BT down it is able to connect normally.

In my case, this happens when I am adding little bandwidth demand. For instance, it was doing this after a reboot when Mail was the only application I had open.

[Poncho]

I've had this exact problem off and on for years, with Panther, then Tiger. Read something a long while back that it had something to do with the sensitivity of POP mail-type thingies when it comes to sending them your password. To cut to the chase, the best way to deal with this is simply to delete your account completely and then set it up again. Brutal, but fast and effective.

[MacDonaldsd]

Like jalagl said its usually network related. When it doesn't work such as when your connection drops it just assume it was because you entered a incorrect password.

[rafdesign]

I have exactly the same issue. Coincidence or not, it's happening since I've got my iPhone. My Intel desktop and my old G4 Titanium laptop are going crazy. After a while, it keeps asking for the password, I have several emails.
I called APPLE, a first enthusiastic agent said that you couldn't have POP emails... A second one claimed it was my hosting company. So I called the hosting company and they say it's my problem with Apple. So I called backed...
No answer yet.
I tried to reset the key chain, but same issue. I wonder why this is happening since I have an iPhonr, doesn't make sense, as my Titanium was never connected to my iPhone.

[withnail]

Originally Posted by rafdesign

I have exactly the same issue. Coincidence or not, it's happening since I've got my iPhone. My Intel desktop and my old G4 Titanium laptop are going crazy. After a while, it keeps asking for the password, I have several emails.
I called APPLE, a first enthusiastic agent said that you couldn't have POP emails... A second one claimed it was my hosting company. So I called the hosting company and they say it's my problem with Apple. So I called backed...
No answer yet.
I tried to reset the key chain, but same issue. I wonder why this is happening since I have an iPhonr, doesn't make sense, as my Titanium was never connected to my iPhone.

Personally, I'd like so see Apple become a little more descriptive with these messages, since obviously it's not an issue of supplying the wrong password. Incidentally I was just monitoring this problem right when you posted. I opened terminal and left a ping going of my mail server in the background. It usually averages around 75 ms round trip; when Mail hiccups, the round trip time is running longer than that. Not sure if it's a coincidence.

Out of curiosity, for those experiencing this problem, how frequently do you have Mail configured to check the server for new mail? Mine is set to every minute, so I'm going to back off the frequency and see if that helps...

[atomoboy]

Originally Posted by withnail

What's strange is I've been having this problem long before I got the iPhone, its just that it's become more commonplace since then...

My theory is .mac sync, the phone, keychain and mail are trying to keep everything synced and are overwriting or corrupting passwords. For giggles, I'm going to turn off sync and see if that fixes the problem.

[rafdesign]

I thought I would keep some update on the problem:
After calling Apple, I went to an Apple store trying to explain the problem.
The genius has never heard of the problem about the Mail.app asking for passwords. I told him it's been on the web for a while on many websites, but he didn't want to admit that possibility. The solution? to bring my macs at the store.
At this stage, I believe that Apple is in denial... Some Apple page says speaks about the problem, but the solution is to use the First Aid included in the keychain. That didn't work.
Anyway, I am thinking of leaving Mail to migrate to a new email software. Any recommendation out there? I have an Intel mac, I was thinking about PowerMail?

[skwij]

ThunderBird's not a bad mail handler.

As for the password issues, I had some a while back, and it turned out to be my service provider's balls-up.

Sympatico in Canada, in case anyone is having similar issues with Sympatico.

[siurpeeman]

i had a similar problem with my yahoo account (pop) when i got my iphone. i was given this response.

[brb408wpb]

I have had this problem since I bought an iMac in Feb 08. My isp is Verizon, using the lowest DSL speed. I believe it is just bad programming. They should allow a few timeouts and keep trying. Entourage will keep trying and put error messages in the log. Did anyone ever find a resolution?

Bruce

[tzus]

Try rebuilding your mailbox. From the menu bar go to Mailbox and select Rebuild.

[jimmyikon]

The issue is that the mail app is trying to connect too often and the server is refusing the connection.

The fix is to change the "check for new messages" preference to "Manually". With my IMAP account it appears to not require you to actually manually check and seems to wait for mail to be pushed. The result, no more need to re-enter your password.

Fixing this made my month. Hope at least it makes your day.

[dmz]

I concur with skwij - I have had this problem, as have many of my friends and associates, and it is not mac-related as far as I have been able to ascertain. I have, usually, two or three different mail providers, and at one time Sympatico was one of those suppliers, and I always had that issue with that account - but not the others...

After speaking to some people in the know at Sympatico, we determined that it is simply a security mechanism at Sympatico - too many hits on the same email account within a short period of time triggers this "double-check". I never have this problem with the other accounts, though home network congestion will trigger similar results with those other accounts, i.e. two clients on the LAN hitting the same mail server within seconds of each other or near-simultaneously will cause the mail server to either a) refuse the connection, or b) throw up the password dialog.

In other words, I don't think this as an "Apple" problem, the sole PC on my LAN has the exact same issue with the same mail provider. Pretty empirical, I know, but no one at my providers will confirm or deny this theory as it would or could reveal there security measures.

That'll be two cents, please.

dmz

[art4sale]

Originally Posted by jimmyikon

The issue is that the mail app is trying to connect too often and the server is refusing the connection.

The fix is to change the "check for new messages" preference to "Manually". With my IMAP account it appears to not require you to actually manually check and seems to wait for mail to be pushed. The result, no more need to re-enter your password.

Fixing this made my month. Hope at least it makes your day.

I had the same problem for almost a year. It was infuriating!! Here is what caused the problem. I had two computers and the same mail accounts were on both of them. Both of them were set in the preferences to get mail every 5 minutes. That was the problem... both were asking the server for password verification at the same time and the server just kicked it all back.

Solution: Set one computer to get mail every 15 minutes. Set the other to get manually, or once an hour. A month has gone by and not a singe pop-up box asking for my password!

[Harriflex]

I use a MacBook Pro and an iTouch. I have 3 email accounts running. Suddenly last week after dealing with issues from my Broadband provider, my email account stopped downloading. I keep getting the Error message "Password not recognised" I keep entering and its refused, I even tick the box for it to be stored in my Keychain. Is there any way of deleting the keychains and starting again with the passwords?

[Daffodil]

Originally Posted by Harriflex

I use a MacBook Pro and an iTouch. I have 3 email accounts running. Suddenly last week after dealing with issues from my Broadband provider, my email account stopped downloading. I keep getting the Error message "Password not recognised" I keep entering and its refused, I even tick the box for it to be stored in my Keychain. Is there any way of deleting the keychains and starting again with the passwords?

To see all your keychains you go into the application "keychain access," which is in the utilities folder. This will list all of them and allow you to delete/edit them.

[Harriflex]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

To see all your keychains you go into the application "keychain access," which is in the utilities folder. This will list all of them and allow you to delete/edit them.

Thanks for this advice. However in reading all the previous posts regarding this issue, I am still doubtful if it will solve the fault - I will take a look as suggested though. Will the specific keychain entry be obvious?

It's such a shame as I have been boasting how brilliant the Mac is and now I have this major inconvenience!

Do Apple have any suggestions on this what appears to be a more "Common Problem" - and how can we approach Apple to give their honest opinion?

[Daffodil]

Yes. I just went and checked mine, and if you go to keychain access, there's a list of categories on the left, go to passwords, then it should be something like imap.gmail.com or pop.gmail.com, depending on your provider, etc. If you double-click the entry, you can show the password and confirm that it is the correct one.

You should also try the other suggestions above:
- go to preferences>accounts>account information and check that your password there is correct.
- If it's an imap account, go to preferences>general and try switching "check for new messages" to manually, because as explained above, it will be "pushed," so you don't need to seek for it.
- If you have a mix of imap and pop accounts, you can exclude imap's from being checked automatically while keeping the setting for the others if you go to preferences>accounts>advances and uncheck the box for "include when automatically checking for new messages"

Please try these, and report your success/lack thereof. Hopefully that helps!

Edit: Oh, and you should also try "keychain first aid," which is in the keychain access menu and can verify/repair keychains. Perhaps that's your problem...

[Harriflex]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

Yes. I just went and checked mine, and if you go to keychain access, there's a list of categories on the left, go to passwords, then it should be something like imap.gmail.com or pop.gmail.com, depending on your provider, etc. If you double-click the entry, you can show the password and confirm that it is the correct one.

You should also try the other suggestions above:
- go to preferences>accounts>account information and check that your password there is correct.
- If it's an imap account, go to preferences>general and try switching "check for new messages" to manually, because as explained above, it will be "pushed," so you don't need to seek for it.
- If you have a mix of imap and pop accounts, you can exclude imap's from being checked automatically while keeping the setting for the others if you go to preferences>accounts>advances and uncheck the box for "include when automatically checking for new messages"

Please try these, and report your success/lack thereof. Hopefully that helps!

Edit: Oh, and you should also try "keychain first aid," which is in the keychain access menu and can verify/repair keychains. Perhaps that's your problem...

Thank you so MUCH: It is so rewarding when someone comes to your assistance and takes the time to give such valued assistance. I managed to get my head around it all and bravely corrected all Passwords in Keychain etc. Now fingers crossed all seems to be behaving once more!

With very best wishes from Kent UK.

[Daffodil]

My pleasure, happy to help