OS X is irritating ... Help me restore Mail to factory settings?

[Adamantoise]

I don't mean 'remove' a mail account ... Even after removing the account from Mail's preferences, it's not really gone ...

All someone has to do to access my previously removed account is start Mail (which for some reason still lists my credentials) and click Create

... Bam, my mail account is active again without even entering my password.

How do I restore Mail to factory settings?

I've already deleted the ~/Library/Mail/V2 directory and all preferences associated with Mail. Why won't Mail forget?

It's just very annoying that Apple thinks they know best and babysit your entire experience, it's just an annoyance more than anything.

 

[sidewinder]

Hmmm....blame Apple when it is user error.

Did you think to go to "Mail, Contacts & Calendar" in System Preferences and delete it there too?

S-

 

[Adamantoise]

Hmmm....blame Apple when it is user error.

Did you think to go to "Mail, Contacts & Calendar" in System Preferences and delete it there too?

S-

I'm not an idiot, of course I have.

I have deleted all plists and lockfiles associated with com.apple.mail .... I have deleted the entire /Library/Mail and /Library/Maildownloads folders.

I'm at a loss at what to do here, it shouldn't be that difficult to remove your email account from your computer.

 

[Mal]

Sounds like you didn't remove the Keychain entry for the mail account. Open /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access and find the entry for your mail account (search for the username to make that easy). Delete that entry from the Keychain, and you'll have to reenter the password if you choose to set it up again.

jW

 

[Adamantoise]

Sounds like you didn't remove the Keychain entry for the mail account. Open /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access and find the entry for your mail account (search for the username to make that easy). Delete that entry from the Keychain, and you'll have to reenter the password if you choose to set it up again.

jW

Thanks.

That did it!

Upon starting Mail, my name and Email still show up though, I'd really like to have these gone as well.

 

[Mal]

Those are pulled from your Address Book card. Really, is there any advantage to not having them show up? You're not planning to give the computer to someone else to use, are you?

jW

 

[Adamantoise]

Those are pulled from your Address Book card. Really, is there any advantage to not having them show up? You're not planning to give the computer to someone else to use, are you?

jW

Thanks, you've been most helpful. I'll try that once I get off work.

And yes, the issue is my sister sometimes borrows my laptop. I know I could make another user account for her but meh.