#996 new
JW

Cannot add iCloud account

Reported by JW | December 11th, 2014 @ 11:38 PM

Setting up MM for the first time. Trying to add my iCloud account automatically, then through import accounts, and lastly by manually editing the settings. Tried the 32 and 64 bit version. See screenshot for what happens.

Comments and changes to this ticket

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 08:50 AM

    Make sure you follow the recommendations listed here. In particular note this for IMAP:

    Username: The name part of your iCloud email address (for example, emilyparker, not emilyparker@icloud.com)

    To make it even more confusing, for SMTP it says:

    Username: Your full iCloud email address (for example, emilyparker@icloud.com, not emilyparker)

    Let me know if this does not solve your problem.

    ...

    Oh, I now see that you really do use a username and not an email address (in the screenshot). The error still means that the server tells MailMate that username and/or password is incorrect.

    We can take MailMate out of the equation if you are comfortable following instructions to connect to the server using a Terminal window. To do this first paste this line in a Terminal window:

    openssl s_client -connect imap.mail.me.com:993
    

    When the connection is established, you'll see something like this:

    * OK [CAPABILITY nk11p00mm-iscream025 14H18 XAPPLEPUSHSERVICE IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR AUTH=ATOKEN AUTH=PLAIN] iSCREAM ready to rumble ...
    

    Then you login like this:

    0 login username password
    

    Replace username and password with the same values as used in MailMate.

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 11:14 AM

    I tried to do what you said. I get two errors:

    1. Ahmeds-MacBook-Air:~ ahmed$ openssl s_client -connect imap.mail.me.com:993
      CONNECTED(00000003)
      depth=2 /C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=(c) 2006 VeriSign, Inc. - For authorized use only/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority - G5
      verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate

      • OK [CAPABILITY st11p00mm-iscream033 14H18 XAPPLEPUSHSERVICE IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR AUTH=ATOKEN AUTH=PLAIN] iSCREAM ready to rumble (14H18-17359:1984) st11p00mm-iscream033 [37:565:11:05:38:E6]
        0 login username password
        0 NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Authentication failed

    NB. I typed my actual username and password -- I just didn't want it up on a public place.

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:05 PM

    Item 1 is not a problem. Item 2 shows that either your username or your password is wrong -- or that the issue is a problem with the IMAP server.

    I recommend verifying username and password again. Use copy/paste and also make sure the password works for http://icloud.com

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:12 PM

    Username and password are fine. I have them working on Mac Mail and iPhone Mail; my emails are coming through. My iPhone is also set up on the same username and password.

    I also just logged in to iCloud.com just to make sure.

    Finally, I've tried entering the username and password multiple times on the terminal and in MailMate just to make sure I'm typing it right.

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:16 PM

    Also,

    I just downloaded Postbox. It imported my settings from Apple Mail in about two seconds, and my iCloud email is there waiting for me.

    The settings are working fine on Postbox.

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:18 PM

    That's very strange. I don't have any other reports about this and my own iCloud account works fine (also from Terminal).

    One guess could be that one or more characters in your username or password is triggering a problem in MailMate. You can try logging in like this (quoted strings):

    0 login "username" "password"
    

    For the record, this is the response I get:

    0 OK [CAPABILITY XAPPLEPUSHSERVICE IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 ACL QUOTA LITERAL+ NAMESPACE UIDPLUS CHILDREN BINARY UNSELECT SORT CATENATE URLAUTH LANGUAGE ESEARCH ESORT THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES CONDSTORE ENABLE CONTEXT=SEARCH CONTEXT=SORT WITHIN SASL-IR SEARCHRES XSENDER X-NETSCAPE XSERVERINFO X-SUN-SORT ANNOTATE-EXPERIMENT-1 X-UNAUTHENTICATE X-SUN-IMAP X-ANNOTATEMORE XUM1 ID IDLE] User *** logged in
    
  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:19 PM

    Just to make sure the settings are identical, could you setup the account manually in Postbox?

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:20 PM

    Actually, I retract that above post.

    Postbox imported my Office365 email account perfectly from Mac Mail.

    I then manually imported iCloud. It got all the settings. But the same problem: authentication error.

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:21 PM

    Even though I want this to work for you, I am glad to know that MailMate is not alone ;-)

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:24 PM

    It's very strange. My iCloud is working fine on Apple Mail and on the website.

    I tried the terminal command with the double quotation marks, no joy.

    The only other thing I notice is that the server on Apple Mail is:

    p26-imap.mail.me.com

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:28 PM

    The p26- is something Apple Mail somehow users to distribute the load on servers (guessing). They could even use it to make imap.mail.me.com slower for third party email clients ;-)

    I think you should just stick to imap.mail.me.com since it works for me (and they recommend it).

    Since icloud.com works for you then you might want to focus on the username. I use the username of my iCloud email address and not my Apple ID address. I don't think it'll work with the latter (if they are not the same). Does that help?

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:29 PM

    Is it an old iCloud address, e.g., @me.com? Maybe try adding @me.com or @icloud.com even though they do not recommend it (and I've seen this fail in the past).

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:31 PM

    No it's fairly new: an iCloud.com address

    And my username, iCloud address, Apple ID are all the same.

    I'll try and login with my wife's iCloud details.

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:37 PM

    I've just tried with my son's and daughter's iCloud.

    I don't get an authentication error. But I do get iCloud (unavailable)

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:49 PM

    Just keep on using the Terminal to make sure MailMate is not a factor until that part works. (Unavailable would normally mean that MailMate treats something as a temporary error, but given the problems you have I find it unlikely to be temporary.)

    Just to make sure, do you use two-step verification for iCloud (this requires an app specific password).

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 12:51 PM

    I use two step on my iCloud.

    Not for my son's and daughter's.

    When I switch to terminal, I can login on their iCloud accounts.

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 12:55 PM

    Ok, then you need to setup an app specific password as described here: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6186

    (I haven't actually tried that myself, but I assume it works.)

    Apple's implementation of two step verification is proprietary and there is no way for third party applications to use it. Well, they would say that app specific passwords is the solution, but Apple Mail etc. do not have to use that.

  • JW

    JW December 12th, 2014 @ 01:01 PM

    I've just set up two-step verification app specific passwords -- I think they only implemented this recently.

    It generated a password for MailMate.

    And all is good in the world again.

    It works like a charm -- thank you.

    I guess you might have similar support requests from new users in coming months -- might be worth updating your manual.

    But thank you, I appreciate you help and customer service.

  • benny

    benny December 12th, 2014 @ 01:06 PM

    • State changed from “new” to “resolved”

    I'm glad it works for you.

    Ideally, the server should tell the email client that two-step verification is enabled. I'll look into updating the manual pages or find some other way to make it easier to resolve issues like these.

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Mac OS X email client.

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