Passwords in mail preferences being erased automatically

Why are passwords being automatically erased in Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Incoming mail server which causes pop up screens asking for passwords? This happens multiple times for the same email accounts.

Passwords disappearing from both mail and keychain... odd.
It’s not that the password disappears from both Mail and the keychain. Mail saves your password in the keychain and nowhere else, reads it from there when needed, and apparently also removes the password from the keychain when it thinks is invalid...
I thought Keychain's function was to preserve and protect passwords not erase them.
The purpose of the keychain isn’t to preserve anything, but rather to make certain pieces of information accessible to authorized agents only. There is nothing wrong with allowing the agent that stored something there to remove it later.
The problem has nothing to do with the keychain itself, but rather with the fact that Mail sometimes assumes the password is invalid when that’s not the case.
Is mail 4.0 new for OS X 6.0 (Snow Leopard)??
Yes.
I could swear I had this problem prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard.
This I don’t know. I do know, however, that it happens in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), but didn’t happen in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

Similar Messages

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    I've seen a lot of threads on this with many possible fixes from running keychain first aid to changing the interval that mail automatically checks for mail...
    I was having this problem too. however my keychain first aid showed no problems and I don't have mail set to auto-check for messages. Mail would only ask for my password once. If I quit and restarted the program I'd have to enter my password.
    what I did that fixed it finally was deleting my keychain files.
    not through keychain access but through the finder.
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    I ran mail again entered my passwords for all of my emails, checking the save to keychain box, which prompted me to create a keychain. I chose default keychain. all works fine again.
    just note that you will have to re-enter and save all passwords that may have been saved to your keychain.
    I only had about 5 or 6 so no problem.
    It's a good idea to know all of your passwords anyway...

    After much searching around and trying different approaches, I finally solved my issue. I ran the combo 10.5.6 updater, and this solved the issue. Prior to running the combo updater, when I repaired permissions several things could not be repaired. After the combo updater, everything works fine, and permissions are fine as well.
    My mail issue happened after I updated Quicktime, fyi.

  • Think mail is being deleted from inbox automatically?

    I have my aol account routed thru mail. I leave mail in my inbox that I need to deal with later, but I have had these disappear after several days. Like it never existed. Spotlight search doesn't find it either. This has been going on since I started using the mail program in January. It only happens on the inbox; mail I've sent is not affected.
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    isight G5   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   There's usually between 5 and 50 e-mails in my inbox.

    I checked via aol webmail. It is not there, either. I suspect it would have been in recently deleted mail if I would have checked within a day of it disappearing, but there were several days where I didn't check my mail, so I missed that window.
    I couldn't see where to access mailbox settings via webmail, so I signed on to AOL directly. I checked my preferences for the filing cabinet, and the "automatically delete items in my filing cabinet was not checked, therefore none of the options below that were active. Under mail, save the mail I read, and save the mail I send are checked.
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  • Mail Preferences, iCloud.  Incoming Server (IS) info is gray.  Password can't be changed until IS info is input!  How to change?

    I am in the process of changing my iCloud password.  I cannot do this in Mail.  And until I do this in Mail, I can't receive any mail in iCloud.
    Under Mail Preferences/iCloud/Incoming Server.  Info is there, except it is gray.  I can't change it, or make it appear in black no matter what I do.  Nor is the info showing up in the Server information.  Mail Preferences for iCloud will not allow me to change my password until I input Incoming Server info !!  What do I do?
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    To Csound1
    Hi mate, thanks for the info, the original Server p09- etc remains in the box in Mail Preferences, but I went into
    System Preferences Mail section and entered your suggestion in the imap box.
    I ran a test email, IT WORKS!
    You certainly deserve to double your status of Level 2 (12,355 points).
    All my best wishes.
    Incidentally, I'm a retired electrician, so if anybody in the community needs a question answered, let me know.
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  • I can't get into my mail without being asked for my password and its stored in keychain and not having trouble on any other device except my macbook

    I have been having trouble signing on for several days to my email accounts. Everytime it asks for my password and the keychain box pops up. I retype it and it returns. I even went under mail preferences and changed it and it will not let me on. I have an iPad and an iPhone and can access it that way (so I know the password is correct) but not on macbook. Any help would be appreciated.

    David:
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    When you try to boot normally, explain exactly what happens.
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  • Mail is not being checked automatically

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  • Anyway to password protect Mail?

    I would like to Mail to ask me for a password before opening....that way other users of my system won't be able to read my email....is this possible?

    You just may have to log into and out of your computer each time you use Mail, if you are not on a network. But the newer Macs have the capapability of being able to have several users that log into and out of their own Desktops.
    Although, this may help from Mail Help:
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    When you set up a user account in Mac OS X using the Accounts preferences pane, a keychain is automatically created with the same password. Your keychain can store all the passwords you use to access different resources, including your passwords for the Mail application and for each email account. When you connect to a network server, open an email account, or access any password-protected item that is keychain-aware, your keychain provides the password so you don't have to type it.
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    See also
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    passwords
    security
    Open this for me
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  • Error message says error writing Mail preferences

    There’s a discussion about the very same problem I’m having at <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2047886&#2047886> about Mail not being able to save preferences... or at least a message pops up each time despite the fact that the preferences are saved. Annoying, really. I’ve followed all the steps suggested in the above thread, including terminal commands and repairing of permissions. However, the problem didn’t go away. Unfortunately, the thread above was closed (without being answered), so I had to open a new post. Here’s a description of the problem as stated in the above thread... and the problem occurs exactly like that on my Powerbook running 10.4.7.
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    Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. Move the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop.
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    My hard disk has many GB free, and I still keep getting the error
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    What is your hard drive capacity and available free space?

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  • Error Saving Preferences on exiting Mail Preferences

    Hi, I am getting the Error Saving Preferences error on exiting Mail Preferences with advice to check disk space and directory permissions on ~/Library/Preferences. Not knowing what the official permissions should be I booted the iMac from the Leopard installation disk and in Disk Utility I repaired file permissions but this did not make any difference. I have followed other instructions I found in Apple Discussions which were for a previous OSX where I backed up the Mail directory and then moved ~/System/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to the Desktop. Per instructions I then fired up Mail which picked up my Mac account straight away but again on exiting Preferences without even adding any new mailboxes the same error cropped up... in fact I don't think a new plist was created. I returned the old plist and Mail directory.
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  • Mail preferences show outgoing server offline

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  • Mail preferences not sticking and sometimes change on their own.

    Maybe somebody else has seen this odd behavior. Here's the scoop:
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    I've done some more testing and found out several things.
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    4. With a fresh reset of my Mail preferences in 10.5.2, the very first email I send cannot be found in any folder until I quit out of Mail and then come back in. Checking my "Mailbox Behavior" prefs, I see that Mail has decided to put the check mark back in the "Store Sent Messages on the Server". That's not the way I set it up in the begining. This weird behviors repeats itself on the first draft message I save and the first email message I delete out of my Inbox. Mail always causes the first draft and deleted message to disappear until I quit and come back in. The "Mailbox Bevaior" prefs also get reset for storing drafts and deleted messages on the server.
    So there we have it. Many hours spent on this thing. If others want to try it out in 10.5.2, just move your Mail folder and plst file out of your home folder temporarily and re-run Mail. Put your settings in, uncheck a few boxes under "Mailbox Behaviors" and see if Mail starts messing up.
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