Incoming Mail Server field cannot be empty- but it's grayed out!

I'm trying to set up a new iCloud IMAP mailbox. Everything goes fine, except I keep getting the dialog box "Invalid Incoming Mail Server. The "incoming Mail Server" field cannot be empty". It's emplty because it's grayed out and can't be changed. Huh? What am I missing here?

Why are you trying to manually edit this account. Enter it correctly by opening the iCloud control panel (from System preferences) signing in and switching mail on.
If you are already signed in, sign out reboot and sign back in, turn Mail and any other services you want to use on.

Similar Messages

  • HT4864 When trying to update my Mail Account Mailbox Behaviours settings, when I try to close the settings pane the following messages occur: Invalid Incoming Mail Server The "Incoming Mail Server" field cannot be empty. The incoming mail server box has p

    When trying to update my Mail Account Mailbox Behaviours settings, after making the changes when I try to close the settings pane the following messages occur: Invalid Incoming Mail Server The “Incoming Mail Server” field cannot be empty. The incoming mail server box has in light grey colour: p02-imap.mail.me.com in it and I cannot edit its content. Any ideas what is going on and how to fix it?

    Hi all,
    Mattreichenbach is probably on the right track here with a reset of settings.  I think I've determined the issue has to do with cached account information and inconsistencies for the account name.  This seems to crop up when I've changed my password and it hasn't propagated fully to all the servers, devices, certificates, etc.
    Hopefully many here are on their way to restoration of service by now but it's clear that a lot of people are having the same issues.  Very frustrating and definitely something Apple needs to resolve:  incoming mail server field grayed out, incorrect autopopulation of different fields, other unanticipated behaviors.  If you're still having issues, though, here's what worked for me...
    First, head to the iCloud preferences pane in System Configuration and choose "Sign Out".  When I did this it prompted me with a number of "are you sure" type questions about retaining information on my local machine.  I chose to delete/remove the info each time simply because it should all be restored by the cloud and I didn't want to risk a massive duplication of my data... I will say, I'm back up and running with no issues so I suspect you can make the same delete/remove choices...  But use your own judgment.  I don't want you to lose any data (ie.. please use care as you do this because I cannot bear the thought of causing anyone to experience the pain of data loss).
    Once you've signed out of iCloud, restart your system.  When you get back in, head to the Mail, Contacts and Calendars section of your System Preferences and add your account back by choosing the brushed aluminum "iCloud" button.  When it asks for your account name, use your @iCloud.com email address.  I am all but certain my issue had started because one of my devices (iPhone or whatever) had been set up with an email alias specified instead of my @iCloud.com address.
    Apple, if you're reading through any of these issues (there are TONS of users having this same problem).  Take note, that your icloud service somewhat frequently is not responding and yet tells the user that the password is wrong and this prompts people to be changing their passwords unnecessarily.  This has happened to me on numerous occasions.  Also, I noticed that last week's outage corresponded to a VERY similar outage exactly one year ago to the day.  Sounds like planned maintenance to me and I think you could do a better job notifying folks so we're not wasting HUGE amounts of time troubleshooting a problem that we have no hope of fixing.
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    Washington, DC

  • Mail in Mountain Lion "Incoming Mail Server" field cannot be empty

    I put my wife's email account which is in iCloud on mail with a couple of other iCloud accounts.  To identify who's iCloud account is who's, In the preferences on the account where you edit the description from the default "iCloud" to User's Name  iCloud and after you hit save I get an error saying The "Incoming Mail Server" field cannot be empty.  Yet is has p04--imap.mail.me.com in the field that is greyed out and I cannot edit the fields contents and therefore doesn't allow me to change the email account's description.  I've tried deleting the accounts, logging out of icloud, etc.  Nothing has fixed this yet.
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    Okay, I had this problem and solved it as follows:
    1. Deleted any non-functioning iCloud-IMAP accounts from Mail's Preferences. I had two that were working fine, so I left those in place. One of those was the primary iCloud account on my Mac, i.e., the account used for "Find My iPhone/Mac/iPad" and iCloud storage, etc.
    2. Then I quit Mail and restarted my computer.
    3. Went to my other devices and made sure the primary account was the same one there. [Note: It was not -- the primary iCloud account was different on my iPhone versus my Mac, I think this discrepancy might have been the source of the problem, but I don't know.]
    4. I also made sure my wife's Mac uses a different primary iCloud account, one that is not on my machines, although we share one secondary iCloud Mail account (which is not the primary on any device -- it is always a secondary account).
    5. Then, following MChannel's advice upthread, I went into System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars, and added the formerly problematic iCloud accout that way. I have everything turned on for my primary iCloud account. All of the secondary accounts only have Mail turned on (although I don't think that matters -- you can turn on the other features that are available there if you like).
    6. Opened Mail and voila! -- everything is working fine. Accounts are all set up properly without me even opening Mail's Preferences.

  • 'Incoming Mail Server' field is greyed (cannot be filled)

    Using a Mac Mini, OS 10.8.5.
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    I have read half a dozen other discussions about this. The solutions that work or that were suggested include making changes to iOS devices (I have none), deleting previous Apple service email accounts, such as .me or .mac (I have none), and removing the selection for "Mail" in System Preferences > iCloud (I've tried it both off and on, no-go).
    Are there actually six different possible solution for this? If so, I'm looking for solution #7.

    On a Mac, the server fields are automatically configured, which is why they are grayed out.  If your iCloud mail isn't working, go to System Preferences>iCloud, uncheck Mail, restart your Mac, then go back and check Mail again.  If that doesn't fix things, go to System Preferences>iCloud, click Sign Out, choose Delete at all of the prompts, restart your Mac then sign back in.  (This deletes the iCloud account and data from your Mac, but not from iCloud.  Your data will reappear on your Mac when you sign back in, after a brief delay as it redownloads.)

  • HT4864 the incoming mail server field is blank and will not let me type in the information. I can type in other fields but this blank field will not allow it.

    In account information the incoming mail server field is blank but when I try to type it in it does not allow me to.
    Whats do I do?

    Welcome to the Apple community.
    You do not need to start adding manual information into your iCloud account settings. If you feel the settings are incorrect for any reason, you should delete your account and add it back and let it set itself up.

  • ICloud asked me to reenter my password to get mail and when I did, it rejected my password. I'm trying to reenter in my account information, but it won't let me because the incoming mail server field is blank, but it won't allow me to enter anything.

    iCloud asked me to reenter my password to get mail and when I did, it rejected my password. I'm trying to reenter in mail account information, but it won't let me because the incoming mail server field is blank, but I can't enter anything into that field.

    No, didn't have to sign out. As I started to, got a messge saying something about losing all my calendar information, which unnerved me so I didn't sign out. It was correcting the password in another email account that corrected the situation for me.

  • Mail on OSX 10.7.5  has incoming mail server field grayed out

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    I tried this and it entered the same info that was there and the incoming mail server field is still grayed out and I still get the "The incoming mail server cannot be empty" message when I go to exit the iCloud account window.

  • How do I populate the "incoming mail server" field in mail.

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  • Problem with Mail "Invalid Incoming Mail Server"

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    [OK]
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    Unfortunately that did not work.  I unchecked mail and restarted my computer.  Went back in & checked mail.  I have an appointment at Apple Genius Bar on Monday.  Thank you for the suggestion.

  • Why do I get Invalid Incoming Mail Server when changing mail preferences?

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    Hmmm, is this an iCloud account or other account?

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