Email Problems

[redtwo]

I'm having problems with error messages telling me to enter my email password. When I do it doesn't take and the same message pops up continuously!!! I go online and enter the site for my email server and all is well, no problems. but I can't get my emails to my Mac computer. How can I get my email program to operate and get my emails and stop with the messages??? HELP!!!

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum.

What Mac? What version of the OS? What version of Mail? What is the email provider (gmail, proton, yahoo, your ISP)? Have you entered the data into the Accounts section of Mail Preferences? What have you tried already? What, if any, error messages did that provide? Was it working before and stopped, or has it never worked? Did you make any changes right before it started with the problem?

The sparse symptoms you provided--repeated asks for password--are mostly associated with not having the account information set up in Mail Preferences. But we need a lot more information before we can get it sorted for you.

 

[ferrarr]

I get that notification when I forget to turn my VPN off. Are you using a VPN?

 

[toMACsh]

You have to turn VPN off? Just got it on my work computer (Windows) which I have at home. Need it to use Data Collection for billing time to projects. Thought I had to go in through the VPN login each day to access that. Not getting good instructions from IT.

OP: Have you Restarted? Mail still misbehaving?

 

[ferrarr]

You have to turn VPN off? Just got it on my work computer (Windows) which I have at home. Need it to use Data Collection for billing time to projects. Thought I had to go in through the VPN login each day to access that. Not getting good instructions from IT.

OP: Have you Restarted? Mail still misbehaving?

Yes I get it, but only only with my Hotmail account.

 

[MacInWin]

@toMACsh, some mail service providers look for the IP number from which the request for mail has come. It is kind of a security thing, they don't want someone to be able to get YOUR mail from a strange location. VPN masks the IP number as part of the security it provides, so the mail server sees your email app as coming from the VPN IP, not your IP, and asks for the login information to make sure it's you. Turning off VPN allows the real IP to go through, which normally satisfies the mail server. That all assumes you are using VPN from a fixed home/office location where you have accessed mail before, of course. If you are a road warrior, your IP is constantly changing as you move around so you get to log in lots of times. Used to be a road warrior, saw this lots of times.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I'm having problems with error messages telling me to enter my email password. When I do it doesn't take and the same message pops up continuously!!! ...

This used to be a fairly common problem. It is a problem with Apple's Keychain. You must be using an older version of the Mac OS, because this never comes up anymore.
Doing this fixes the problem for most users:

Launch the Keychain application, located in your Utilities folder.

in the Edit menu, choose Keychain List. Now in the Shared column check both System and Login.

In the upper left column, highlight Login.
In the lower left column, highlight Passwords.

In the right window scroll until
you find your internet service provider's incoming and outgoing mail servers.
They are usually called something like:
"mail.yourisp.com"
and
"smtp.yourisp.com"

For Comcast they are:
"mail.comcast.net"
and
"smtp.comcast.net"

Double-clicking on each (in turn) will bring up a window with tabs at the top
which say Attributes and Access Control.
Select Access Control.

Then select "Allow all applications to access this item." Make sure you do this for both
the incoming server and outgoing server keychain items.

If the above doesn't help, check out:

Manage OS X always asking to use your keychain passwords | MacIssues

What to do if Mail constantly asks for passwords | MacIssues

Macintosh computer Mail SMTP Server Error message