When setting up a mail account on your Mac or iPhone, you may sometime receive a message saying “The account already exists”. This is a very common problem which arises because of a problem with the keychain of iCloud. This is really frustrating as you will not be able to add that particular email account to your phone or Mac computer, no matter how many times you repeat the process. But nothing to worry as we have discussed the solutions here.
Why this really happens?
Well, the reason behind this issue is the iCloud itself. An iCloud account saves a large amount of data. The email account which you are trying to add is also present in your iCloud data which iCloud is trying to sync, but it is stuck for some reason. So as soon as you sign out of you sign out of your iCloud account the email the iCloud keychain stops syncing that mail and then you can easily add it to your Mac or iPhone. Once you have successfully added the account, you can log in back with your iCloud.
Steps to fix Mail Account already exist on Mac
Turn your Mac on.
Now click on the Apple logo. It is present in the top left corner. This will open a new window.
Click on System Preferences and then on iCloud option present in the third row
Click on Sign out option. This will sign you out from your iCloud account.
Now add the mail account.
Sign back to your iCloud
You will no longer see the error message.
Here is how it’s done on iPhone
Go to setting and then tap on your name.
Scroll down and then tap on the sign out option. You will find it at the bottom.
Enter your password when asked. After entering the password tap the Turn Off option.
Tap sign out.
Now go to mail and add the account.
Go back to settings and then click on iCloud to sign back.
This will fix the problem.
You have successfully added your mail account.
Below are suggestions taken from apple.stackexchange.com:
“This can be caused by three things. iCloud being messed up (and trying to sync your internet accounts) and corruption on the Mail settings and corruption in general in your user settings.
A. Set up a brand new user account – with no iCloud and no Apple ID. Try adding the mail account there from System Preferences – Internet Accounts Preference Pane
If that doesn’t work – your gmail is messed up or you need to reinstall the Mac from scratch (i.e. something is really wrong with the OS – this would be my last resort – make sure Gmail settings are clear at that point before backing up and wiping the Mac)
B. Sign out of iCloud on your Mac with your normal account.
Get a good backup before you delete content on the Mac. You will want to delete anything that’s synced to iCloud to let the system clear out data that depends on iCloud. If you’re paranoid, export data like Contacts and Calendar to a stand alone export/backup before you take this step. Then repeat the remove/add procedure.
C. Go to the logs. You’ll need to run sysdiagnose Mail and then get into Console app and perhaps Log Connection Activity by opening the Mail Connection Doctor and checking that option.”
Experiencing difficulties with your Device, check out our “How To” page on how to resolve some of these issues.
Hi, I have tried this solution several times now, signing out of iCloud then trying to add the email account, but I still get the same ‘this account already exists’ message. Any other suggestions how to solve this one ? It’s getting really frustrating !
I am truly sorry to hear. Most users report a fix for the problem with the suggestions presented. I also found suggestions for a fix on StackExchange: “This can be caused by three things. iCloud being messed up (and trying to sync your internet accounts) and corruption on the Mail settings and corruption in general in your user settings.
To troubleshoot this:
We already stated in the article the first suggestion which they also share so continuing onwards to B:
B. Set up a brand new user account – with no iCloud and no Apple ID. Try adding the mail account there from System Preferences – Internet Accounts Preference Pane
If that doesn’t work – your gmail is messed up or you need to reinstall the Mac from scratch (i.e. something is really wrong with the OS – this would be my last resort – make sure Gmail settings are clear at that point before backing up and wiping the Mac)
C. Sign out of iCloud on your Mac with your normal account.
Get a good backup before you delete content on the Mac. You will want to delete anything that’s synced to iCloud to let the system clear out data that depends on iCloud. If you’re paranoid, export data like Contacts and Calendar to a stand alone export/backup before you take this step. Then repeat the remove/add procedure.
D. Go to the logs. You’ll need to run sysdiagnose Mail and then get into Console app and perhaps Log Connection Activity by opening the Mail Connection Doctor and checking that option.”
Thank you! I was having this issue but your information helped me to solve it! It’s great to be able to access my email accounts on my Mac again 🙂