Mac Mail - Won't SEND email. Receive is fine.

Question

Mac Mail - Won't SEND email. Receive is fine.

Hi.. My Mac desktop won't send email for either my iCloud.com a/c, nor my yahoo email a/c.

Currently, i get the following error pop-up from mail:

If i look at Mail preferences/Accounts/icloud/Account Information, i if have the following:

and under Server Settings:

If i look to Edit SMTP Server List:

Other Info:

I'm on

It was fine until about two weeks ago.

send/receive via my iPad and iPhone, works as it should.

Many thanks,

Paul.

[Image Edited by Moderator to Remove Personal Information]

Posted on Apr 26, 2020 5:50 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

147,576 points

Apr 26, 2020 6:47 AM in response to Paul_Clifford

Please read If you can’t send email on your Mac including the link within it, learn how to resolve issues with iCloud Mail.

It's not a good idea to post your email address on a publicly viewable website like this one. I hope you don't mind if ask this site's Hosts to edit or omit the screenshots revealing that information.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

147,576 points

Apr 27, 2020 8:07 AM in response to Paul_Clifford

Please attempt to send an email using iCloud.com, here https://www.icloud.com/mail/, according to Get help using iCloud Mail.

Does that work?

The idea is to exhaust all the steps under First things first and continuing all the way through If you can't access iCloud Mail at iCloud.com. Stop there for now and let me know what happens.

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

147,576 points

Apr 27, 2020 10:44 AM in response to Paul_Clifford

Good! In that case the next thing I'd do would be to remove the problematic email account(s), and add them again.

Add or remove email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Follow Remove an email account first, then add that same Account again as described in Add an email account.

Since iCloud Mail appears to be sending and receiving properly except within the Mac's Mail app, start with your iCloud Account. If that works, repeat for your Yahoo! Mail account.

In the meantime you might want to repeat your send / receive test through Yahoo's webmail page, for its account. I surmise it should work also.

Needless to say, if you are using, or have used at any time in the past, any non-Apple "anti-virus", "cleaning", or "Internet security" products including "banking security", anything at all in that broad category of utterly useless garbage, don't. A lot of things won't work if you do.

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

147,576 points

Apr 29, 2020 7:03 AM in response to Paul_Clifford

Time Machine is a complete backup solution, while iCloud backs up files such as photos, documents, and music.

How to back up your Mac explains each, including how to calculate how much space is required for them.

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Answer 5

Apr 27, 2020 5:33 AM in response to John Galt

Hi..I've been through the above and it doesn't indicate a solution.

I have an Account Error:

If i click this i get:

I also have a message when i click the Account Error, telling me to take both accounts online. I've never turned them offline, so not sure what that is all about. Regardless it makes no difference.

One of the help pages talks about Editing the SMTP Server Settings window and not seeing your iCloud SMTP server as an option:

My server settings for iCloud are blank. Is that how it should be? Or should there be a server in there?

Thanks,

Paul.

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Answer 6

May 16, 2020 6:36 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John..i had to wait for my new back up device. Time Machine done and complete.

I followed the instructions and deleted both email accounts. I then added back my iCloud account. Unfortunately, the issue remains when i try to send a mail. Receiving mails works just fine.

When i look at Edit SMTP Server List, it is empty.

I have not tried adding back the other, non-icloud, email account.

Thx,

Paul.

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Answer 7

Apr 28, 2020 7:15 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John,

I understand that removing the account will also delete the folders within which i have stored messages by relevance?

i've read that i can move messages to a new mail box on the Mac itself, but i should take a copy of ~/Library/Mail. I'm struggling to locate this in Finder. What inputs should i use to search for it within Finder? I've used ~/Library/Mail itself, along with 'mail' and 'library'...but to no avail.

Many thanks,

Paul.

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Answer 8

John Galt

Level 10

147,576 points

Apr 28, 2020 9:46 AM in response to Paul_Clifford

Mail messages stored locally, in a Mailbox "on your Mac", will not be affected by removing the iCloud Account and adding it again.

Don't bother with ~/Library/Mail. Be sure you have a Time Machine backup though, which just goes without saying. That's a fundamental practice and unrelated to any specific Mail concerns.

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Answer 9

Apr 29, 2020 5:54 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John,

I've never used Time Machine as i assumed 'cloud storage' was the same thing?

Should i need to use Time Machine what is the best way to ascertain size of USB stick(GB) required for data to backup?

Many Thanks.

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Answer 10

May 16, 2020 10:30 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

I just did this and it failed to work. i saved the mails i wanted. Backed up my drive and then deleted both email accounts from Mail.

I then added back the iCloud email account, but the issue remains.

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Answer 11

Apr 27, 2020 10:28 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John,

Yes. Sending an email from that link(https://www.icloud.com/mail/) works.

I went through the Get help using iCloud Mail, implementing what seemed applicable.

Thx,

Paul.

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Answer 12

Apr 26, 2020 7:26 AM in response to John Galt

That’s fine.

i appreciate your comment

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

245,639 points

May 16, 2020 11:50 AM in response to Paul_Clifford

Paul, since you have a backup now, I'd delete the iCloud account & set it up from scratch.

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Answer 14

babowa

Level 9

78,459 points

May 16, 2020 10:41 PM in response to Paul_Clifford

Out of curiosity: how are you connecting to the internet? Do you have an email account set up using the Mail app with that ISP? With a password and email address?

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Answer 15

May 16, 2020 10:59 PM in response to John Galt

Oddly, as i think it should not happen, all my Mail folders that were empty, are now filled with the messages again.. My understanding was that they would be lost unless placed into On My Mac.

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Mac Mail - Won't SEND email. Receive is fine.

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