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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Deleting deleted accounts in Mail

Deleting deleted accounts in Mail
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Thorzdad
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Mar 2, 2018, 12:26 PM
 
I opened Connection Doctor in Mail yesterday and saw that, in addition to my active email accounts, Mail is still trying to connect to several long-ago-deleted email accounts. None of the deleted accounts appear in the Mailboxes list in Mail, but it seems Mail still has them stored...somewhere...and is still trying to connect to them, and occasionally throwing me an error popup.

So, the question is, where might I look in order to permanently remove these old, deleted accounts from Mail? I took a look in the Thorzdad>Library>Mail>V2 folder, and it just has files for my active accounts. None of the deleted ones are there.

Any guesses?

Thanks.
     
reader50
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Mar 2, 2018, 03:31 PM
 
Are they listed in Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts ?

Disabled accounts appear there, but without appearing in the Mailboxes list. Though if you check the box to disable them, it normally stops all access attempts.

If it's DB corruption: select the Inbox (not a specific box), try Mail -> Mailbox (menu) -> Rebuild.
     
Thorzdad  (op)
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Mar 2, 2018, 03:40 PM
 
Must be DB. Mail > Preferences > Accounts lists only my active accounts.
I won't have to re-enter passwords and stuff after rebuilding, right?
     
reader50
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Mar 2, 2018, 03:57 PM
 
No. It's really a DB repair command.
     
Thorzdad  (op)
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Mar 2, 2018, 05:14 PM
 
Ran Rebuild. Restarted Mail, just for the heck of it. The old accounts are still there.
     
reader50
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Mar 2, 2018, 07:26 PM
 
There's also Thorz>Library>Mail>PersistenceInfo.plist

When I check this file (under High Sierra), it has a list of email addresses. Some are old. I've never tried editing it. If you do, save a copy to the desktop before editing. Just in case you need to revert. Or restore from Time Machine if things go badly.

With Mail closed, if you find a dead address in it, you can try editing with a programmer-safe editor. TextEdit / BBEdit / Xcode / pico / nano / emacs. (all are free) Don't use TextEdit. Might work in plain text mode, but TE defaults to RTF mode. Which would trash the file.

If you do try to edit, delete the (string) with the address, and the (key) above it. Mail has to store accounts data somewhere else too though, as this file does not contain the passwords. Try Keychain utility, delete anything associated with the dead accounts.
     
Thorzdad  (op)
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Mar 3, 2018, 09:13 AM
 
I don't seem to have a PersistenceInfo.plist.
I'm still on 10.9.5, so maybe that's something added to more recent versions of Mail?
     
reader50
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Mar 3, 2018, 01:35 PM
 
Well, try deleting the login passes from Keychain for the old accounts. At the very least, it will force Mail to ask for passes. When you deny, that should disable those accounts.

Oh - check the outgoing accounts. Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts -> (select any current account) -> (tab) Account Settings or Server Settings.

You're looking for where you can manually set the outgoing mail server. Pop-up the outgoing servers list, select (Edit SMTP Server List...) from the bottom. Once you reach the SMTP editor, you can delete old outgoing servers. Perhaps it's not full old accounts hiding somewhere, just old outgoing server entries.
     
   
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