Mac Mail Password Errors-can't Get Mail

sandy81676 · #1 October 7th, 2005, 10:30 PM

Hi,

I'm running Tiger on an iMac G5. I have had no problems with my mail account for the year that I've had the G5..until now. All of a sudden, I can't get my mail from my comcast pop account. It keeps asking for my password. When I enter the password (which I've had for over 6 years), it tells me that it is incorrect. So, I threw away my accounts and rebuilt them. Upon rebuilding, it said there was an error contacting comcast. What's confusing me is, I NEVER changed ANY setting and there was never a problem before a week ago. Needless to say, creating a new account didn't work. I called comcast, and SURPRISE!! they say it's a problem with Mac Mail and not Comcast. I verified my setting with them and they said that they were correct. The incoming is mail.comcast.net and the incoming is smtp.comcast.net - the port is set to the default of 25. If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it. I really on my email to get homework assignments, credit card statements, account verifications, and updates for software (garagesale updates almost daily). If you need any other info to help me, please feel free to ask. I will keep checking back - but have a lot of hwk. to get done tonight.

Thanks in Advance!

Sandy

PS - my ISP address is www.comcast.net (not .com)

bobw · #2 October 8th, 2005, 07:43 AM

Quote:

I called comcast, and SURPRISE!! they say it's a problem with Mac Mail and not Comcast.

This isn't true. I use Comcast, and just setup Mail to see if it works, and there's no problem.

I would suggest going to Comcast web mail and changing your password, then change it in Mail and see if it works. If that doesn't work, setup a new account on Comcast web mail, then set that up in Mail and see if it works.

Quote:

The incoming is mail.comcast.net and the incoming is smtp.comcast.net

You mean outgoing is 'smtp.comcast.net"

sandy81676 · #3 October 8th, 2005, 12:55 PM

Thanks for the suggestions and going through all of that set up for me!! I called comcast and they said that they had just performed a software upgrade in my area which can sometimes "bump" passwords. But, now I can login to my account on the website but not in mail. They are sending out a technician because they think it may be my modem (which is 6 years old) that they have never upgraded. They think that the modem cannot handle the higher speeds so it is timing out. We'll see what happens....I'll keep you posted.

Thanks, again!!

Sandy

outerasp · #4 June 29th, 2006, 05:08 PM

I have had the same problem with mac mail for the last 9 months.
It is not related to your mail account or ISP. it is a bug in the actual mail application itself. It has something to do with keychain access or possibly the server timeout settings. I havnt found a reliable fix for this yet.

Good luck to both of us.

Jason

Satcomer · #5 June 29th, 2006, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by outerasp

I have had the same problem with mac mail for the last 9 months.
It is not related to your mail account or ISP. it is a bug in the actual mail application itself. It has something to do with keychain access or possibly the server timeout settings. I havnt found a reliable fix for this yet.

Good luck to both of us.

Jason

What problem Jason? Is you mail asking for your password every time you use it?

nrshapiro · #6 February 8th, 2008, 10:48 AM

Was there a solution to this for you?

This is happening for me, on ALL my email servers (different servers) at different times. Mac Mail asks me for a password, but it's really another problem, like timeout. I can simply cancel the password box, go to the mail window and take the server back online and it's fine.

I'm running Leopard 10.5.1 on a Mac Pro. Servers giving me problems (all) include my broadband provider mail and two different virtual hosting accounts of mine.

I've read elsewhere that the password prompt is a result of a timeout, or a bug in Mac Mail, but it seems this problem has been around so long, surely there must be a solution?

Satcomer · #7 February 8th, 2008, 02:38 PM

Have you opened KeyChain Access (/Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access) and from that application menu select "Keychain First Aid"? This might help, Good Luck.

nrshapiro · #8 February 8th, 2008, 02:46 PM

Yes, it says "no problems found". That's good, but doesn't solve the problem! Thanks anyway!