Mail & iCloud confusion

Although I have a MacBook Pro, I have never really got into iCloud or Mail (used the web location while I was away) but I have had to have an Apple Id which has been based on my only email address. So when I start to set up Mail for that email address it keeps telling me that an account is already set up. The only account there is the iCloud account.

So I suspect that because my email address is the basis for my Apple Id, it has effectively hijacked the mail address and prevents me from using Mail as I want - which is to have both mine and my wife's email accounts (POP3) set up feeding separate inboxes. We both use the same computer account.

I am not sure what is the best way forward? Another email app? Find another email address for my Apple Id? Some of the things I have read about Mail are not great but I do not use GMail so that is a help.

I would be grateful for any suggestions?

Thanks.

When you say that you start to set up Mail, are you in System Preference > Internet Accounts? If so do you see an iCloud in the left pane? If so you should already be set up. If not then click iCloud in the right pane and start the setup process. If this is what you have already tried then more info from you will be needed. You can also delete the iCloud account and start over. Say no to deleting any data on the Mac.

I mean that I had clicked on Mail from the dock. It already had an icloud account set up in mail. When I clicked on add a new mail account and put in my email details, it said that an account for that email was already set up. Since the icloud account was the only one visible and set up I thought it must be that one that was causing the problem.

I have been using my current email address for years and it has been used as the user account for numerous websites over the years. I have too much invested in it to want the hassle of changing it for spurious reasons. I have been trying to read up on iCloud, Apple Id and using email addresses. The internet is strangely silent on the subject - at least in terms of giving enough info to understand what is going on. Plenty of talking around the subject but nothing to explain to me what is going on and how to resolve the situation. Apple isn't much use in explaining things. It tells you how to do various things but doesn't explain why or what the pitfalls are. But I did know that before!!

My conclusion so far is that I don't need to set up another email address. If I don't use it what is the point? I don't want to change my main email address - as I said too much hassle. Going through the process of getting a new Apple Id requires another email address and sorting things out afterwards seems somewhat convoluted! So since I am changing my email client anyway perhaps I am better off going for something other than Mail especially is it isn't universally loved! At the moment, I am investigating Postbox.

So far my conversion from PC to Mac has been fairly smooth if a bit tedious. I have two more awkward issues. One is the mail issue outlined in this thread and the other is transferring my iTunes libraries but that will be the subject of another thread in due course.

I don't think I understand the problem. I have three email addresses and Mail is set up to receive all three (and to send from the three outgoing servers, too). Each account goes into a separate inbox in Mail. If you and your wife share the machine, then it should be possible to set up whatever accounts you want. You can ignore the iCloud account if you don't want to use it. And if you don't even want to SEE it, you can delete the Mail account from Mail and not have any issue with your iCloud account. However, if there is any reason that Apple needs to email you something about your account, they will need to know your email address because they will otherwise default to the iCloud account. One of my three accounts is that iCloud account, which I just leave alone for that very reason.

Open Mail and look in Mail/Preferences/Accounts, but not in the Accounts tab that opens when you first click on the Mail tab on the top bar. In that view you can see all the accounts that have been set up in Mail and you can add a new one from there or delete them if you want to. In the details of the accounts should be a box that says, "Enable this account." Unchecking the box will disable that account but preserve the data about the account.

The Accounts tab that first appears when you click on Mail on the top bar has a somewhat less useful presentation, IMHO.

If I had known when I set up my Apple Id for this Mac that my main email address would be tied up, ie would not be available for other use I might have done things a bit differently. Now I have set it all up I will continue my search for an alternative email client. It is something that would be better explained upfront so that users can understand and make sensible decisions. It is not something that you expect when switching!

No point continuing this thread!! Thanks for the replies.

Again, I don't understand. Your email address is not "tied up" in any way. If it's the entry account number for your iCloud account, that is ALL that it is, a login id. And if you want to use the email address for your Mail setup, you can. The reason for continuing this thread is that all of your assumptions are incorrect.

OK but they seem like facts and conclusions to me!! I am just a bit tired of banging my head against this particular brick wall. I would be quite happy to use Mail if only it would allow me to set up my account!

I have tried to set the account using my main email address both in Mail and in Internet Accounts. In both cases it says that the Account already exists (see attachments with my personal details blurred out for obvious reasons). You can also see that there is only the iCloud account set up. Mine is the only user on the system apart from the guest account.

Please advise me if you can draw any other conclusions!

Lets start again, you like me, set up an Apple ID using your existing email address. I for instance used my gmail account. So my Apple ID is [email protected] plus my password. Apple then gives me an iCloud email address as part of the deal. My iCloud email address was automatically created and called [email protected] it could also be [email protected]. So first go to https://www.icloud.com/# and login. You will see Mail as one of the options, open that and send yourself an email to your old/current existing email address. When you receive it the "sender" will be your iCloud email address.
As for your old email, the one you are trying to add to mail it needs to be added as either gmail or yahoo or whatever it is in the add account window NOT iCloud.
When I added my gmail account to Mail I simply selected Gmail in the add account window and the rest of the info ie. name of account, type (POP or IMAP) and my password for that account and Mail did the rest, you need to do the same.
As confusing as it may seem the email address you used to set up the Apple ID is just a name. An identifier if you will, like a credit card number that can be verified.
So Mail will have two accounts, your iCloud account and as soon as you add it, your current main email address, it has not been hyjacked.

But That's what I tried to do and it won't let me as shown above. The only internet account I have set up is the one for iCloud. I tried to set up my account in two ways. First from within Internet Accounts as shown in the first screenshot. Second from within Mail as shown in the second screenshot. In both cases it showed me that the account already exists. I only entered my name as the Account Id (and it isn't iCloud!), my main email address which is the one used in my Apple Id and the password.

So one of the things I entered is conflicting with something. I haven't an account set up in my name. I can see no evidence of any account having been hidden. You can see that from the screenshots. Mine is the only user on the computer. So what is wrong then?

And looking at the account info for my iCloud account it has been set up using my main email address!!

Progress at last! Thanks Rod for making me think about it a bit.

Essentially we were all correct!! My email address had indeed been hijacked - through what I did early in the set up process. I was focussed on xferring files, setting up the disks and my data and sorting the email on my computer. As a result I hadn't taken too much notice of the iCloud except to ensure that Calendar (which we already use), Contacts and Notes were set up. Crucially not Mail. As a result I had not been allocated an iCloud.com email address and therefore it was using my main email address instead for the iCloud account. Hence I couldn't use that address for setting up an account in Mail. As soon as I enabled Mail on the iCloud and had an iCloud email address, it then allowed me to set up an email account based on my main email address. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I like to understand what I am doing and the implications of what I do. There is not enough to help you do that on the internet and Apple error messages seem less than informative at times - especially when you are unfamiliar with the system.

So now I can move forward with starting to use Mail and importing my emails. It appears that I am OK with my provider and, as I will be moving from POP3 to IMAP, I know I have to be careful with ensuring my IMAP access is set up and working before importing my current emails. Having them all accessible won't exactly cripple my system at just over 3GB but I am not sure that is necessary. I see that you can set up offline mailboxes "On My Mac" - is it possible to choose where they are placed? My 500Gb SSD will probably cope OK but my preference is to store the archived mail on my external RAID disc.

I want the SSD to be available more for my ongoing photography stuff ie what I still have to process and decent sized fast caches for LR and Photoshop.

You are using the WRONG interface. Open Mail, click on the word MAIL in the top left corner of the screen, then PREFERENCES and then ACCOUNTS. Do not use the ACCOUNTS on the first menu when you clicked on Mail, that takes you to the screen you posted. Once on the proper screen, you click on the "+" at the bottom of the left window and add account information. If there is an account already there for the address you want to you may either delete it and start over, or change the account information to suit you.

And looking at the account info for my iCloud account it has been set up using my main email address!!

Click to expand...

I'm sorry but I don't know what that means. When you established the iCloud account the very first time Apple created an iCloud email account. That account will have @icloud.com as the email domain. And when it syncs, it may well establish that email account in Mail automatically, since they know all the information for that one account. But they don't know anything about any other email you have, unless you provide it. Did you give Apple your previous email account to use to contact you? If so, then Apple will have that email on your profile but that doesn't keep you from receiving mail at that address.

We cross posted. Now it makes sense.

Any comment on the question of whether I can decide where "On My Mac" folders are stored?

After reading through this thread, I need another cup of coffee! Anyway, @spock999, it seems you're on your way.... And yes, the "On My Mac" folders can really be anywhere of your choice.

One quick note about converting to IMAP: Most ISPs designate a limited length of time where they will store your messages that have been read and/or downloaded. Google Mail (gmail) is 30 days, others may be different so be sure to check.

Thanks chscag for both parts. I have searched extensively over the internet and I have found a couple of people have asked similar questions but never seen it answered. So I'm pleased my original problems are sorted

chscag said:

And yes, the "On My Mac" folders can really be anywhere of your choice.

Click to expand...

How do I set that up?

chscag said:

One quick note about converting to IMAP: Most ISPs designate a limited length of time where they will store your messages that have been read and/or downloaded. Google Mail (gmail) is 30 days, others may be different so be sure to check.

Click to expand...

Very useful info. I will be sure to check.

There is one hangover. Having tried to send an email using my main email address, it tries to send it via the cloud as the iCloud account still has that email address. There seems to be no way of prioritising which account it chooses.

It won't let me change the email address used for iCloud so do I need to delete that account and set it up again using the iCloud address as email but leave the user name as my main email address; ie like my Apple Id.

OK when you setup your iCloud account Your Account Name (at the top) will be your old email address and your Password the same as your Apple ID.
I thought your old email address was also still working. If so dependent on what service it is eg gMail then you select gMail in accounts enter your Your Account Name eg Rodney Sprague (at the top) and the email address and your password for that account. Then you should have two accounts. One will appear in the sidebar of Mail as iCloud and the other as whatever name you gave it.

Sorry Rod but I am not sure what you mean. Perhaps I need to be more specific.

I actually have 4 mail accounts set up. The iCloud account originally set up when I received the iMac plus the three that I actually want to use. All seem to be receiving mail OK. The big victory yesterday was actually setting up the one with my ISP using my main mail address. This morning I tried to send a message via my main mail address and had an error message that transmission had failed when an attempt was made to send it via iCloud. I was presented with alternatives and it then went OK via my ISP.

The two mail accounts at issue are those which have my main mail address as the email address and they are set up as follows:

iCloud - User name is my main email address
Email address is my main email address
Not sure what the password is I assume the password for my main email address

ISP - Email Address is my main email address and password is the correct one for that email

So, to me, it looks like Mail is preferentially trying to send mail for my ISP via iCloud but that doesn't work. I suspect because the email address is inappropriate as it should be my iCloud email address.

I want to finish up with the email using my ISP to go via my ISP and the iCloud mail going via iCloud. The question is how do I do it. I can see at least two options but I am not sure of the implications of each. In particular whether I will inadvertently screw up something else that I am not aware of. They are as follows:

Disable the iCloud account - That will stop the contention but what else will it do? It certainly won't allow iCloud mail!

Delete the current iCloud account and set up another with the correct iCloud email address - This feels like where I should end up. Presumably with my main email address as the user name (ie as in Apple Id) but with the iCloud address. Not sure about the password though as I have never been asked to create one to go with the iCloud email address.

There may be other better ways to do it.

As always, I would be grateful for any advice or suggestions. I must say it feels like I am walking through a minefield!!

Open Mail, click on Preferences in the upper left corner, then click on Accounts. Do NOT click on Accounts from the upper left corner, that will not let you do what you need to do. Follow the sequence exactly as I gave it. You will be able to get to more control if you follow that sequence.

Once you have gotten to the screen with the details of the accounts, by selecting the Accounts tab at the top of the new window, click on the account you wish to change, then Account information. One of the blocks will be "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP):". In the box beside that prompt, enter the SMPT of the outbound server you want to use with THAT account. Each account can have it's own SMTP server. You can also change the Alias that shows as the return address when you use that account, and pretty much everything else in that tab that isn't greyed out. The greyed out stuff come from your mail server and cannot be changed. I have three email accounts set up, one for Apple, one for my ISP and one for MS Exchange that is provided by an organization I help that wanted me to be in their email system.

EDITED for clarity in second paragraph