How to Reinstall an Email Address on Macintosh

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Occasionally you may find that your email account on your Mac stops working. This can often be easily fixed. Just reinstall an Email Address on Macintosh. Simply disconnect and reconnect the account.

If your email account is not working on one device, but it works on other devices, the fix often involves deleting the account on the device where it is not working, and then reinstalling it.

Generally, email is set up so that it does not actually reside on any of your devices, but rather it is stored in the cloud at the email provider and you can view it from any device that is logged in.

This means your Gmail is being stored on Google’s computers and your Comcast email is being stored on Comcast’s computer.

You will know if this is the case by looking at your email on more than one device (e.g. your computer and your phone). If the email you can see are the same, including any stored in folders, then nothing will be lost by deleting an account and reinstalling it. (If in doubt, come in to SDM and we can help you figure that out.)

**IMPORTANT: Before you begin, make sure you have the password for your email account. To be sure, open a web browser and log in to your email account.**

Step 1 – Find the email accounts on your Macintosh Computer

On your computer, tap on the Apple menu in the upper left corner.

Choose System Preferences… This will open the System Preferences window.

In this window, click on Internet Accounts. In this example, there are 7 accounts shown – indicated by the red numbers we have added.

Click on the account in question. In this case inc gmail.

Step 2 – Delete the email account

Click on the – underneath the account list.

Step 3 – Add the account again

Tap on the + underneath the account list. You will then see a list of the types of predefined email accounts. If your email type is not on this list (scroll down to see all) then click on Other.

Here we are adding a Google email (@gmail.com)