28-08-2016 09:31 - edited 28-08-2016 09:41
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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on 17-04-2017 17:41
Thanks - I phoned cusromer support TWICE about this and they did not provide this solution. Perhpas they should join the forum as part of their training?
on 11-05-2018 15:02
Hi there, thanks so much for this post. Yesterday, I was happily sending/receiving emails from my iphone, today nothing is working. The IT support team in my office were really grateful for this post - and i'm pleased to say that my iphone is now sending/receiving emails. Grr..... technology! 🙂
on 21-09-2018 15:01
Thank you so much. I followed your instructions and my sent email is now working. I am very grateful for your help.
on 21-09-2018 15:07
It's been nearly two years since I've posted this and I still get the odd Kudo - wow.
Thanks for the feedback.
Tim
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on 05-10-2018 20:58
Followed your instructions on iPad. Seem to be receiving emails but cannot send them. Any idea of how to deal with this?
How do these instructions work for a MacBook Pro and MacMini? Have same problems with these.
M Tennant
on 05-10-2018 21:53
You're better off starting a new thread. When you do please try and detail any error messages you get.
Tim
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on 11-10-2018 18:29
We've moved your post to another part of the community.
on 30-11-2018 04:21
thank you very much for your help.
on 01-12-2018 14:47
on 10-03-2020 13:08
Hi,
Whilst the information in this post was correct at the time of posting, changes to iOS in early 2020 changed the behaviour of the in-built Mail app to correct the behaviour.