outgoing mail using wrong server

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Level 1

24 points

outgoing mail using wrong server

I spent a few hours figuring out how to get the settings right between my ISP and the Mail app on my MacBook to add a new email IMAP account. Previously I had a gmail account already set up and working. I thought I had everything set right but it's still not working the way it is supposed to.

If I send an email "from" my gmail address, things work the way they are supposed to.

If I send an email "from" my new IMAP address, Mail still uses the gmail server to send it. The message is delivered, but gmail (for anti-spam reasons I'm sure) rewrites the header to show that the message is from my gmail address instead of from my new address. I know my ISP's mail server is working fine because I have all the same settings in my iPhone and messages sent there are delivered properly.

From the Preferences screen, I can verify that the Outgoing Mail Server is chosen for the account, but Mail just isn't using it for some reason. (My gmail and exchange accounts send properly.)

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 11, 2020 9:43 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Ken-183 Author

Level 1

24 points

Jul 12, 2020 10:00 AM in response to Ken-183

So I think I've found a fix. I can't explain why there was the problem or if there was a cause for the underlying bug, but at least I got my mail working. Here is what I did:

In Mail, I changed the outgoing mail server for the gmail account to my new SMTP server. Sending mail from the other account worked properly, but of course now it was the opposite issue: I couldn't send mail through the gmail address. And when I changed it back, it was back to the same problematic behavior.

From System Preferences, I disabled the gmail account. Sending mail from the other account worked properly.

I enabled the gmail account again. Sending mail went awry again.

Finally, I deleted the gmail account from System Preferences instead of just disabling it. Sending mail from the other account worked properly. I recreated the gmail account. After waiting for all my mail to download again, I tried it, and both accounts work properly now.

So, at least that seems like a fix. I don't know if it has to do with the order in which the accounts are created, or if it was something else, but completely removing and re-creating the gmail account did the trick.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,183 points

Jul 11, 2020 9:51 AM in response to Ken-183

Mail>Preferences>Composing, about halfway down, send new messages from: Automatically best account.

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Answer 3

Ken-183 Author

Level 1

24 points

Jul 11, 2020 9:54 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, I tried Automatically and I also tried telling it to default to the problem account, but same behavior: both times it sends it to the gmail server.

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