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.
- On the device tap settings.
- Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars to see a list of accounts currently set up.
- Tap the name of the offending account you'll now see the account type and email address.
- Tap the email address to bring up the settings window.
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. - Tap the SMTP server to see the primary server and any other servers you have set up.
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. - Tap the primary server to see the current settings.
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. - 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.
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
