I’ve been a Mac tech since around the time they were invented. This was my primary vocation for decades, but these days I don’t have a lot of clients … locally. But if you or someone you know has a mac problem, and wants it solved? I can probably solve it. I have failed perhaps 6 times in 30 years or more.

Today I had a totally bizarre problem. OS X Sierra on someone’s Imac. We changed a password on one of their email accounts that had been compromised (on the server). Then, OS X mail wouldn’t accept the new password. A search of internet answers mostly failed. None of them worked. A dialog box would pop up in mail requesting the password, I’d enter it, and then it would report, in red text under the password box ‘unable to verify password or user name’.

Frustrating and senseless. As many such issues turn out to be.

I tried various ‘solutions’ which I will not detail here. All failed.

Eventually, however, what turned out to solve the problem was totally counterintuitive. Enter the password. »Hit the TAB key »to change the »focus away from the password field, »then hit enter. Worked immediately. No idea why.

Another intractable problem … is history for a new client.