Mail - AOL Password

[George_in_Lawrence]

I received several warning messages last year from AOL about making some changes to Mail in order to continue to have the automatic connection continue. I could't figure out how do it, so I thought maybe the message only applied to other devices. The deadline came and went, so I thought I was good. Then on February 15 at about 1:00 PM Eastern time, Mail was no longer able to get or send messages to AOL. Mail kept asking me for a password, but the password I send did not work. I think AOL is using a higher level of security. Do I need a new version of Mail or will the current version work if I enter the correct information in the app? I am running MAC OS Sierra ver. 10.12.6.

 

[George_in_Lawrence]

Mac Mail help suggested deleting the AOL account and creating it new. That didn't work. AOL suggests I need to enter a couple of port settings and provides the values. How do I set up these port settings?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Here are a few articles that may help:
-AOL Help - Use POP or IMAP to sync AOL Mail on a third-party app or download your email
-Apple Mail - Outgoing server settings (this is for High Sierra, but should work for Sierra as well)

See if that helps,

C

 

[George_in_Lawrence]

Hi Cory Cooper
Thanks for the reply. I have the AOL Help and have the port settings they suggest. By unselecting the "Automatically manage connection settings" the Port: field appeared. I have entered the number AOL has provided, but when I try to save the changes, the system is unable to verify the account name or password. This is the message I have been getting from the start. And I also lose the changes I made. Attached is a screen print of the setting entry.

Thanks G

 

[George_in_Lawrence]

OK. Finally fixed. Mail was not trying to verify my personal account password with AOL, but AOL was looking for a match to an APP Password that AOL generates. So to do this, go to security page of AOL Mail and click on Generate app password. A pop up screen appears with the password. Copy/paste it into the password field in the server settings screen and make sure all of the other fields are correct. Save. And finally no error message. Then I brought AOL online and shortly I had a lot of new mail. Thanks C for getting me to focus. To find the correct directions, I went back to old mail in AOL and was able to find the Final Notice mail back in October.

G

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Excellent! I was going to respond to this today.

Stay healthy and safe!

C

 

[George_in_Lawrence]

I was a bit premature in marking this solved. I was able to get new mail with the fix, but when I tried to send a message the outgoing server rejected the message. Connection Doctor shows all connections good, and login to SMTP not necessary. So we are getting to the server, but something in AOL now seems to be rejecting the message. Not the end of the world, as I have set up a gmail account and can send things out that way. But I would like to get this cleaned up. I'll keep trying, but am open to suggestions.

G

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

No worries...

-Make sure you have your full AOL email address in the User Name: field.
-SMTP Server: smtp.aol.com
-Port:465
-SSL: checked

C