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| Rejected Password Woe |
Since iCloud came into being and because I've stayed on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, I've been unable to move MobileMe to iCloud, resulting in nothing but problems with MobileMe Mail.
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| Stay Calm, Tap OK and Carry On |
On iOS devices I've just clicked OK to warnings that my username or password are incorrect. The result may be that my latest emails are not downloaded but the ones already downloaded have remain on the device and then things seem to work again. After a period of time and by doing nothing suddenly new emails appear in the inbox. The issue is different on the Mac.
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| The only choice is Cancel |
On the Mac, if I type in my password to the dialog it is refused everytime. My only choice is to Cancel. If I then Quit and Relaunch Mail.app then my MobileMe account is removed and all my previously downloaded emails are unavailable.
Sometimes I can get them back by entering my password in the Settings for the MobileMe account within Mail.app. Sometimes I have had to delete my MobileMe account from Mail.app then add it again. Sometimes I have had to re-add it
and do the
Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Accounts Information > Incoming Mail Server: Password: [enter password]. I find that entering my password via
Apple > System Preferences... > MobileMe > Account doesn't solve the problem. I need to add it in Mail.app Preferences.
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| Add MobileMe to Mail.app = Fail |
This problem has been on going since 10 October 2011 and the launch of iCloud . On Friday 25 November, the problem got worse. When I deleted my MobileMe account from Mail.app, I was unable to add it back because the password was refused
every time during the initial stage of adding the email account back into Mail.app . This meant that all my emails were deleted from my Mac, I couldn't add them back and the only way to access them being online via a browser. On my iOS devices, the password was now always refused and the inbox was not being updated on each device.
Whilst I was unable to add my MobileMe Mail account to the Apple Mail.app, I was able the add the account to a third-party email client called
Sparrow first time and without problem. I have changed my default email client from Mail.app to Sparrow by changing the Preferences in Mail.app to
Mail > Preferences... > General : Default email reader: Sparrow. Yes, I know, read it and weep Apple. These are not happy times for me and Apple products. (Alternatively, Sparrow can be set to be default mail reader from Sparrow > Preferences... > General: System: [Check] Make Sparrow the default mail reader. I prefer to set it from within Mail.app because if feels more insulting to the app that's giving me grief.)
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| Apple ID and Primary Email Address splits the .Mac / MobileMe eras |
With MobileMe in the iCloud era, there are two IDs: an Apple ID (that works with iTunes Store, Apple Online Store, the Mac App Store) and the MobileMe Primary Email ID. They can be one and the same email address or different. You can associate more that one email address with an Apple ID. This works around the problem of someone who used a different email address with FaceTime to still be able to use that FaceTime connection and be linked with the one Apple ID. In theory the .Mac [username]@mac.com is interchangeable with the MobileMe [username]@me.com but I have had issues. I have not had issues with an account created in the MobileMe era (post .Mac era) which only has an @me.com email address. The problems come with my main and older @mac.com/@me.com email address.
Amazingly, I just had a thought that I had an iTools email account prior to 2002. I wondered if this was causing the problem. I have been able to reclaim it using
https://appleid.apple.com . That account has one email address unified as an Apple ID and Primary Email Address. Beautiful. Sadly my main .Mac / MobileMe email-account-and-everything-bought-from-Apple ID refuses to be unified. It says that the Email address is already verified for another Apple ID. BUT I HAVE ONLY USED IT WITH THE ONE APPLE ID ACCOUNT. Give me strength. This main Apple ID spans the era of .Mac to MobileMe and so has both an @mac Apple ID and an @me Primary Email Address. I wonder now if there is an Apple ID for [username] without the @mac.com or @me.com to add to the confusion.
Clearly the simple elegance of Apple hardware engineers' design is not matched by their confused software engineers' Clouded Services vision. What it means is that when I add my @me.com email to Mail.app it has the Apple ID of the @mac.com account but Mail.app uses the mail.me.com and smtp.me.com servers of MobileMe which then reject my Apple ID @mac password. My @mac password is of course the same password as my @me password because it is the same username account that Apple in its infinite wisdom decided to give two email address when launching the MobileMess.
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| The Apple ID is .Mac the servers are .Me |
I have now deleted and MobileMe Mail accounts on my iOS devices. When I re-add my Primary Email to Mail on the iOS devices, using the @me.com email, the account ID is changed to the @mac.com Apple ID and the servers are also changed to the .Mac era ones of mail.mac.com and smtp.mac.com . I am unable to change this on the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard version of Mail.app.
So now I am into a new day and Mail.com refuses my MobileMe password yet again. The problem continues. I need the sword of Alexander the Great to cut through this Gordian knot. Maybe it's available on eBay or maybe I should cut my losses and just use Gmail.
