Accept Certificate Exception in macOS Mail

This section provides a tutorial example on how to handle mail server certificate exceptions in macOS Mail.

If you are connecting macOS Mail to an internal local mail server, you will get server certificate exceptions, if self-signed root certificates are used on the server.

Here is what you should do in this case.

1. Click "Show Certificate" on the exception dialog box.

2. Review the certificate and make sure that it is the one used on your mail server.

3. Check the checkbox "Always trust ... when connecting to ..." and click "Continue".

4. Enter your macOS password to allow this certificate to be trusted and saved in "Keychain Access" on your macOS.

macOS Mail - Server Certificate Exception
macOS Mail - Server Certificate Exception

Note that the mail server may use 2 different self-signed certificates for POP3 and SMTP services separately.

If you want to see or remove those certificates, you can find them in "Launchpad > Other > Keychain Access", and under "login > Certificates".

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction to Email

 Postfix - Mail Transport Agent (MTA)

 SSL/TLS Secure Connections with Postfix Server

 Dovecot - IMAP and POP3 Server

 SSL/TLS Secure Connections with Dovecot Server

Email Client Tools - Mail User Agents (MUA)

 "mailx" Command - Send and Read Emails

 "Alpine" - Terminal-Based Email Client

 macOS Mail Auto Configuration

 macOS Mail Manual Configuration

Accept Certificate Exception in macOS Mail

 Windows 10 Mail Configuration Failed

 SSL/TLS Connection Issue in Windows 10 Mail

 Mozilla Thunderbird - Mail User Agents (MUA)

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB