MacMail: How to get rid of old smtp names?

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Horatio Street

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I've switched to a new ISP.

Inside the MacMail/Preferences/Accounts/Account Information/Outgoing Mail Server:

I can't find a way to erase the other smtp server names that appear inside the Outgoing Mail Server list area (including typing errors).

How does one get rid of this no-longer-needed information?

Thank you in advance.

:D
 
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If you open mail and hit Command+; to open mail preferences and then go to accounts, you should see your old isp's account in there.

Select it and hit the minus icon at the bottom to delete the old account.
Then you can add a new account accordingly...
 
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To delete the old SMTP servers, it depends on which version of Mail you're using....the Jaguar version or the Panther version. In Panther it's easy, just goto the SMTP drop down and choose "Edit" and you can delete from there.

In Jaguar, you'll need to manually edit the Mail plist file to delete the old servers.
 
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H

Horatio Street

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There are no icons at the bottom with which to delete old smtp accounts.

I do still have Jaguar as my version of OSX. What exactly is a "plist" file and how do I access it?

Thank you.
 
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It's in your user/library/preferences folder. Look for com.apple.mail.plist is the name of the file. Open it and scroll down until you see your SMTP servers and delete the one you no longer need.
 
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H

Horatio Street

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Thanks!

I followed your instructions and managed to delete all except for one. Don't know where it's hiding because I scanned the file three times.

When I went back into Mail/Preferences to see what changes took effect, I found that all the information about my current ISP had been deleted. How that happened is beyond me since I was careful not to touch anything associated with it. But I inputed it all back in and sent myself a message through a webmail account, and received it.

The "Find" feature in the Finder sure didn't come back with anything for "smpt" when I used it. I'm so used to Windows that I figured I could just do a search of the Registry. I think the think tanks at Apple should find a better way to make getting from A to Z easier. (How hard can it be to create commands that respond easily and quickly -- as I needed in my case -- to a request to locate any and every "smtp" reference within any and every folder and file?)

I don't have the $$ to take Mac classes, so I've looked at several Mac how-to books but can't tell which one is better than the other for hands-on help. Is there one that stands out from the rest as the best Mac guide available?

Thanks, once again!
:girl:



schweb said:
It's in your user/library/preferences folder. Look for com.apple.mail.plist is the name of the file. Open it and scroll down until you see your SMTP servers and delete the one you no longer need.
 
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Actually SMTP management is much easier in OS X 10.3. You can do it all from a preferences dialogue so they did make it simpler :)
 

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