Old Exchange & Google Accounts keep reappearing

[daijholt]

Set my new Mac up as new this week, so I could leave some old accounts behind as I no longer work for the company they were associated with, however every time I set my Mac up I get all these old inactive accounts pre-populated in my mail account settings (see attached screenshot). They're a mix of different account types too.

How do I stop this from happening? This has been an issue for years for me, but only now is a bigger problem because the accounts don't even work anymore since I've left the business.

Obviously they're linked to my iCloud account in some way, but these accounts aren't set up on any other device that I'm currently using. Apple or otherwise.

Any insight is appreciated.

 

[chrfr]

Set my new Mac up as new this week, so I could leave some old accounts behind as I no longer work for the company they were associated with, however every time I set my Mac up I get all these old inactive accounts pre-populated in my mail account settings (see attached screenshot). They're a mix of different account types too.

How do I stop this from happening? This has been an issue for years for me, but only now is a bigger problem because the accounts don't even work anymore since I've left the business.

Obviously they're linked to my iCloud account in some way, but these accounts aren't set up on any other device that I'm currently using. Apple or otherwise.

Any insight is appreciated.

View attachment 916291

They're synced via iCloud keychain, but it happens inconsistently. You can just highlight the accounts you're not using and click the minus sign at the bottom. Eventually they should go away from the keychain sync.

 

[randomgeeza]

Eventually, yeah ... I am still getting accounts randomly appearing from years ago. I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

[daijholt]

They're synced via iCloud keychain, but it happens inconsistently. You can just highlight the accounts you're not using and click the minus sign at the bottom. Eventually they should go away from the keychain sync.

Thought this too, however I went through a stage late last year where I had zero Apple devices active, and subsequently found out that by having no devices active, your keychain data gets purged.

When I got back to Apple devices, my keychain was empty with no passwords present. But these old accounts are still there.

Guess they're determined to stick around.

 

[ipedro]

I'm having the same issue. @daijholt are you still being haunted by those old accounts?

 

[ipedro]

Ok, this is funny. I've had this issue for years. Then I come here to finally get it fixed and I found the solution myself. Putting it here in case any other poor schmuck like me comes looking for the solution.

1. I opened the Internet Accounts settings for both of my Macs.
2. I deleted the inactive account on both computers, simultaneously.
3. There is no step 3.

It turns out when deleting on one computer, it would sync over from the other. So, you'll have to delete the account on **ALL** the computers, iPads and iPhones where that account appears, and do it within at most, seconds of one another.

I've had 2 accounts from old workplaces that I haven't worked at for 5 or more years. They haunted me. They're now gone. At least, they have been for the last 20 minutes (they used to re-appear within seconds). Wish me luck.

 

[albert421]

Ok, this is funny. I've had this issue for years. Then I come here to finally get it fixed and I found the solution myself. Putting it here in case any other poor schmuck like me comes looking for the solution.

1. I opened the Internet Accounts settings for both of my Macs.
2. I deleted the inactive account on both computers, simultaneously.
3. There is no step 3.

It turns out when deleting on one computer, it would sync over from the other. So, you'll have to delete the account on **ALL** the computers, iPads and iPhones where that account appears, and do it within at most, seconds of one another.

I've had 2 accounts from old workplaces that I haven't worked at for 5 or more years. They haunted me. They're now gone. At least, they have been for the last 20 minutes (they used to re-appear within seconds). Wish me luck.

After every crazy thing I tried from every other post on this issue. This one worked lol. Thanks

 

[BrianBaughn]

Back when iCloud Keychain syncing became a thing I gave it a shot and unwanted crap like this started happening right away!

 

[slh]

I've had this problem lately and after reading this post had an epiphany. Search in the Keychain Access App, under icloud, All Items for ... accountsync and you should see the old accounts. I just did this and deleted the ones I didn't want. They disappeared from the Internet Accounts automatically after this. Hopefully that'll stomp them out for good!

 

[iamwiley]

None of the above suggestions have worked for me. It's only happening on my macbook and only started today. The email account in question hasn't been used in years. I only just got icloud drive syncing to work late last night after weeks of syncing issues; not sure if that's related...

 

[cosmogfd]

None of the above suggestions have worked for me. It's only happening on my macbook and only started today. The email account in question hasn't been used in years. I only just got icloud drive syncing to work late last night after weeks of syncing issues; not sure if that's related...

Exactly the same problem, and started on Wednesday for me too!