Internet Accounts - I cannot REMOVE them

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Level 1

25 points

Internet Accounts - I cannot REMOVE them

Hello all - I am attempting to remove 3 Internet Accounts from several of my Macs.

Each Mac has Big Sur 11.1. There are two MacBook Pros and one MacPro.

Using System Prefs - Internet Accounts I have made sure that each account has nothing checked. Then I click the minus sign and when the dialog appears I click "Remove from All". Each account can be removed but within 40 or 50 seconds I get a Notification that xyz@abcd.com account has been added back.

I have tried this from all three Macs.

Repeatedly.

Each account quickly returns. One is a no longer used @gmail and others are for an ISP I no longer use.

I find one similar but very old thread here but the one answer there did not fix my situation...

thank you for any suggestions.

qb

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 19, 2020 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

qbpals Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 25, 2020 12:46 PM in response to mario49

mario49 & Old Toad - thanks for the DU and Keychain Access ideas. After booting into Recovery mode and running it on each partition (or whatever APFS calls them) AND doing the Keychain removal the accounts still magically reappear. Ugh. As suggested time to contact Apple support. If they find a solution I will try to report back.

thank you everyone

qb

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Answer 2

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Dec 22, 2020 2:24 PM in response to qbpals

Hello qbpals,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities. We understand that when you remove Internet Accounts, they are being added back.

Is this a computer that you use for work or school? If so, restrictions may be preventing these changes. Are you currently using an guest or standard user account instead of admin account?

If neither of the above is the case, and you have completed the steps in the Stop using an account section of Use your internet accounts on Mac, next we recommend that you start up your Mac in safe mode and test to see if the same occurs. That will help to isolate this a bit.

Using the results from safe mode, use the guidance in How to use safe mode on your Mac to proceed.

Have a great day!

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Answer 3

faith185

Community Specialist

Dec 23, 2020 10:59 AM in response to qbpals

Thanks qbpals,

When this issue occurred in safe mode, did you have a chance to reinstall macOS as recommended in How to use safe mode on your Mac?

Were these 3 Macs previously restored from a common source such as a Time Machine backup? That may help to isolate where this issue occurred.

Since this happens in safe mode, it may be a system-wide issue. In that case, try starting in safe mode and run first aid in Disk Utility. That will find and repair errors related to formatting your Mac disk. Reference How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility for details.

Take care.

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Answer 4

qbpals Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 23, 2020 6:24 PM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad - my dialogue is not quite the same. In Mail.app, in accounts when I click the "-" button is see a message about taking me to the Sys Prefs "Internet Accounts". I'm attaching a screen capture here...

Mine says it is on the iCloud keychain which makes sense as i have it on Macs and iPads.

Is your account only on a single device?

This account is NOT my iCloud account rather one I have seldom used for many years. Just the password is stored via the keychain. Which SHOULD go away when I remote that account...

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Answer 5

qbpals Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 23, 2020 6:59 AM in response to Leanne_68

@Leanne_68 - thank you for your reply.

All 3 Macs are my personal computers and not related to any office or schools.

I had forgotten about Safe Boot and gave this a try. But no difference. In Safe Boot I removed an account I no longer use and about 20-30 seconds later I got the notification it had returned.

Anyone else have suggestions? When I can I'll contact Apple Support - in a few days after the holidays.

qb

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Answer 6

qbpals Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 23, 2020 11:57 AM in response to faith185

@faith185 - The 3 macs are not from any common source. Each was setup fresh around Dec-2019 with Catalina and this Dec after 11.1 was release I updated (upgraded) each to Big Sur 11.1

I'm at a veterinarian office. When I get home will boot into Recovery Mode - seems the best way to run Disk Utility. And I'll report back.

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Answer 7

qbpals Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 23, 2020 12:00 PM in response to Old Toad

Hello Old Toad!

I have tried the following -

In Mail.app I unchecked "Enable this account" first. Not this does not delete the internet account at all. In fact if you click the "-" sign at the bottom it directs you to System Prefs -> Internet Accounts.

So I do feel I have tried your suggestion with negative results.

thank you

qb

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Dec 23, 2020 11:15 AM in response to qbpals

Are these email accounts? If so try deleting them first from the Mail app's preferences. Then check the System preferences to see if they are still there. If so try to delete them from there.

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Answer 9

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Dec 23, 2020 1:25 PM in response to qbpals

I'm not sure you got the same response that I get:

This is the first window I get when I click on the "-" button under the sidebar in Mail's Accounts preference pane. Do you get anything like this?

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Answer 10

mario49

Community Specialist

Dec 23, 2020 1:35 PM in response to qbpals

qbpals,

If you have the same results after running first aid, it may be best to reach out to Apple Support directly for further assistance. You can reach out directly from Get Support.

Cheers!

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Answer 11

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Dec 25, 2020 12:19 PM in response to qbpals

Open Keychain Access and search for all occurrences of that email account. Delete all of the entries for that account. Then try deleting via Mail.

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Internet Accounts - I cannot REMOVE them

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