ICloud – I’m prompted on every reboot for a password for a stale iCloud account

icloud

I have had an iCloud account associated with a Gmail ID old@gmail.com. I then switched to another ID new@gmail.com, so I removed old@gmail.com from my iCloud account and entered new@gmail.com. This was an year or so back.

A few days back, I found an entry in the Keychain for old@gmail.com, so I deleted it. After that, I'm prompted one every reboot to enter the password for old@gmail.com:

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I cancel it, but it comes up after every reboot. I tried entering my iCloud password, but it doesn't work.

How do I get this prompt to go away and never come back?

Best Answer

The application icon suggests the password is being requested by Messages.app.

Messages.app

Launch Messages.app and check the accounts listed in the preferences do not include or mention your stale @gmail.com account.

Messages preferences toolbar

Internet Accounts

Look for legacy accounts in your Internet Accounts within System Preferences.app:

System Preferences > Internet Accounts

Preferences

Check your preferences for mentions of the old address using the Terminal.app command:

grep -r old@gmail\.com ~/Library/Preferences/*

If this matches a file, modify the following command to examine the file's contents:

defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist > ~/Desktop/output.txt

In the example above, a new file called output.txt will appear on your desktop. This file can be opened with TextEdit.app.

This file may hint as to which application or tool has your old account listed.

If you find a matching preference, consider deleting or renaming it. The preferences will be lost but they should never contain critical information.

Remember to log out or restart after altering the preferences file.

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