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Ipad/Iphone SMTP why deleting and recreating an account DOESN'T fix it.

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

With people reporting being unable to send mail on an Ipad or Iphone I decided to have a closer look at how IOS manages it's email accounts.

Setting up.

As most users will know - provided Apple has the details for a domain in it's online database, then setting up an account is easy.

You simply provide the following information

1. Name of the account holder.
2. Email address.
3. Password.
4. Friendly account name - (defaults to email domain)

Using this information, the Ipad automatically configures.

  • Incoming mail server (POP3 or IMAP)
  • Outgoing Mail server (SMTP)  

The outgoing mail settings are added as the Primary for that email address and is also added as a secondary email server for any other IMAP/POP accounts should the main one fail.

Deleting an Account.

Apple, in their infinite wisdom have decided that when you delete an email account it only deletes the incoming server not the SMTP server.

Furthermore if you re-add the account, and it has an SMTP server set up for that specific email address it will re-associate the SMTP server as the primary server for that account.

Standard Advice is wrong.

The standard advice for Ipads/Iphones following a change in account password or to deal with a problem sending is to do the following.

1. Delete the account from the Ipad.
2. Recreate the account.

After all creating a new account is straightforward.   I've given this advice myself before now.  However based on the above information while this will fix INCOMING mail issues, it won't resolve OUTGOING mail issues.

Revised advice for managing sending problems/changing passwords

Based on my findings this is the advice for dealing with a change in email passwords for an email account on an IPad or Iphone.

  1. On the device tap settings.
  2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars to see a list of accounts currently set up.
    step2.JPG
  3. Tap the name of the offending account you'll now see the account type and email address.
    step3.JPG
  4. Tap the email address to bring up the settings window.
    Step4.JPG
    If you've changed your account password - enter the new password here.  HOWEVER if you can receive mail but not send you can leave this password alone.
  5. Tap the SMTP server to see the primary server and any other servers you have set up.
    step5.JPG
    The other SMTP servers are those servers associated with other email addresses.  I have two separate virginmedia.com accounts on the Ipad hence smtp.virginmedia.com appears twice, once as the Primary and once as an SMTP server for the account labeled Nest on my IPad.
  6. Tap the primary server to see the current settings.
    step6.JPG
    Delete and re-enter the correct password here.  Tap Done and the Ipad will attempt to connect and authenticate with the outgoing server.  If successful you'll be returned to the main account screen.
  7. Tap done on the main account screen.  If you edited the password earlier, then the Ipad will check the incoming settings and the settings window will close if this is successful.

Removing Unused SMTP Servers

If you have deleted an account and you want to remove the SMTP server completely from the IPad, then provided you have an additional POP3/IMAP account set up you can do the following.

Follow the steps above in another account to get to the list of smtp servers and tap the name of the server you want to remove.

As before you'll see the server settings but this time at the bottom you'll see a Delete Server option.
smtpother2.JPG

Tap this and the confirmation dialog to remove the server.

Note: If you have an incoming account associated with that server you will not be able to remove/modify the server settings.
smtpother1.JPG
So if you don't see the Delete option, make sure you've deleted the associated email account and try again.

FINAL NOTE:  IPhone's/Ipod Touches also use the exact same steps as above, although the screens may appear different  due to the limited space available on those devices.

Ravenstar68

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49 REPLIES 49

HowardML
Superuser Emeritus
Superuser Emeritus

@Ballyargus wrote:

I wonder why I'm getting numerous emails with this heading, "Ipad/Iphone SMTP why deleting and recreating an account DOESN'T fix it." every day and I don't even have an Iphone or pad?

 


Check your subscription settings in your profile and adjust as appropriate. See the last post in this thread from SDC:

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Legitimate-emails-being-blocked-as-spam-at-ntlworld-com/td...



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Hi

I have found that if I set the port to 25 and have the encrypted type set to none and no authentication setup. I can send emails but that is only on my virgin connection.

I have managed to get the logs for Thunderbird using the same settings you have shown. these can be found below.

6128[a11140]: SMTP Connecting to: smtp.blueyonder.co.uk
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 220 know-smtprelay-7-imp bizsmtp ESMTP server ready
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 14
6128[a11140]: SMTP Send: EHLO [192.168.1.71]

6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 250-know-smtprelay-7-imp hello [removed], pleased to meet you
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 250-HELP
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 250-SIZE 52000000
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 250-8BITMIME
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 250 OK
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 4
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 21
6128[a11140]: SMTP auth: server caps 0x20330, pref 0x300, failed 0x0, avail caps 0x300
6128[a11140]: (GSSAPI = 0x800, CRAM = 0x2000, NTLM = 0x4000, MSN = 0x8000, PLAIN = 0x200, LOGIN = 0x100, EXTERNAL = 0x400)
6128[a11140]: trying auth method 0x200
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 16
6128[a11140]: SMTP AuthLoginStep1() for removed@blueyonder.co.uk@ fR|fR
6128[a11140]: SMTP: password undefined
6128[a11140]: SMTP Send: QUIT

6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 0
6128[a11140]: SMTP Response: 221 know-smtprelay-7-imp bizsmtp closing connection
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 11
6128[a11140]: SMTP entering state: 12
6128[a11140]: SMTP connection error quitting 80004004, ignoring

Thunderbird appears to keep rejecting username and or password.

Hope this helps

Thanks

Sandy


[MOD EDIT: Personal and private information has been removed from this post. Please do not post personal or private information in your public posts. Please review the Forum Guidelines]

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

6128[a11140]: SMTP: password undefined

Suggests there was no password entered for this mail account so Thunderbird gave up without continuing the authentication.

Ravenstar68

@Jen_A or @Nicola_C could someone take a look at Sandy's situation.  I'm guessing you might find some 525 VM304 errors in her email logs.

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Jen_A
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi SandyD,

As per ravenstar's prompt I have inspected your SMTP logs and note the VM304 error, dated for the 7th.

Emails sent from a BT IP were successful whilst those sent from your VM IP were not. At this point I noticed you seem to have made some recent changes to your account which have resulted in your blueyonder email being isolated on an account with no active services. This will need to be sorted out before I can escalate the VM304 to I.T. although it's highly likely that this is the cause of the error anyway.

I shall send you a PM (purple envelope icon, top right of page) in a moment so that we can discuss how best to get this issue resolved. 


Jen
Forum Team



cathowen3
On our wavelength

Thank You Ravenstar68. I have one iPod and my iPhone working ok now. Will do the other iPad later, on charge at the moment. Fingers crossed. 

Thanks again

allcebrook
Joining in

Brilliant - bloody Apple, too smart for their own good

IainHarris
Joining in

Brilliant  That has worked  Thank you so much!!

Gussto
Tuning in

You, sir, are a genius !

Your fix worked immediately. I'd suggest you go to work for Apple, but you wouldn't last long - you use common sense and give customer satisfaction, so you'd be going against their company policy.

Many thanks for your contribution.

Gus

 

 

Jamie101
Tuning in
This hasnt worked for me 😰😰

HowardML
Superuser Emeritus
Superuser Emeritus

@Jamie101 wrote:
This hasnt worked for me 😰😰

Why didn't you post in your original thread where I gave you advice so that we could follow-up the reasons for this not working for you?  We can't deal with you in two threads at once.



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