I had the occasion to have to replace an email account on an iPad last
night. At first I thought I could just change the in and out server
addresses and passwords, but then I thought why not just rip out the old
one, which hadn't been used in a year and a half, and add it again. So I
did--or tried to. I deleted the old account, but when I went to add the
new one, it occurred to me that I didn't remember the email password.
You know, it's one of those things you set up and hope you'll never have
to change unless, as in this case, you change domain providers and
forget what you chose. No problem--I'll just sync the iPad with the
other Apple devices on the account.
Or so I thought.
The first rabbithole down which I went was Safari's password list. The
email account wasn't there.
Next I tried Keychain Access. Vacuously empty. Hey, I thought Keychain
Access held every password known to a Mac in its database. Guess not!
Next, a call to Apple technical support just in case I was missing
something, and another to Apple's disability access help line in case I
might have stumbled upon an accessibility issue with Keychain Access.
Nope, no issues, no accessibility problems. Just no email account
password stored anywhere.
And it can't even be gotten from System Preferences, although it *is*
possible to change it. There's even a menu accessible from
VO-Command-Spacebar with options on it like Cut and Copy, but they're
all grayed; the only active one is Delete. Go figya!
So, if iCloud is so great for synchronizing accounts across devices,
what about email?
Apple says that, except for mail addresses supported by Apple itself
through iCloud, the only way to save an email account's username and
password is to log into that account via Safari. But what if the email
provider doesn't offer Web-based email via direct access to the account,
i.e., logging directly into the Web-based mail system instead of going
through CPanel or some other portal? Easy and pretty obvious answer:
You're stuck--at least that's the polite way of putting it (LOL).
So it's back to CPanel login to my domain for me, where I'll have to
reset the password for the email account in question, go into two Apple
devices to update it, and then finally create the account on the iPad.
You can be sure that when I set this account's new password, I'll use a
password creation formula I devised some time ago and follow it to the
letter! That password formula hasn't failed me in over twelve years.
So, was there an easier way to have accomplished this, or is an email
address not associated with the iCloud domain and Apple ecosystem truly
on its own? I suspect the latter.
--
The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries
list.
If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you
feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or
moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.
Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at:
[email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at
[email protected]
The archives for this list can be searched at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/ae8d919e-37ed-bc21-d333-5bb0e38a49e8%40noisynotes.com.
