iPad 'Cannot verify server identity' error

I’ve now tried everything without luck. I’ve rebooted my phone, I’ve deleted and readded my account, I’ve turned off all notifications. But I still get the dumb, annoying message. My ipad seems to be fine but my iPhone still has the issue. Like others, this started only after I downloaded the most recent iOS update. Hopefully we’ll find a solution soon as it’s driving me mad.

As mentioned by a couple in these comments...the annoying message is, so far just that...an annoying message that can be eliminated by SIMPLY TURNING OFF NOTIFICATIONS for the offending email account. I did that last night on my hotmail account and the message has been gone. Everything works, but no annoying message. PS, it’s not tied to most recent IOS update because I haven’t taken any update for months. It has to be some Microsoft/Apple conflict that will eventually be addressed.

I’m reluctant to try and assure you about the safety of your email if you delete the mail app. If you simply turn off the email account with the instructions I posted, it won’t delete anything. You need to find out if your email is set up as POP or SMTP for me to answer that with confidence.

I did manage to stop the pop up for now. In my case, the bug affected Gmail and Outlook and was unrelated to iOS updates, since my phone is on an older iOS. I also did not have a "trust" button that could fix the issue, like so many here. So, I deleted my accounts again (made sure I was also logged out of the accounts on their websites) and then re-added them manually, instead of using the Google or Outlook buttons at set up. The SSL toggles were able to be "on" using this method too, which was not the case when I used the suggested buttons to set up before. Don't know if it fixed the trust issues but it is at least a workaround that enables me to use my phone. I did not update my iOS. Only posting this in case it is a temporary fix for someone else. Good luck everyone!

Seems in my case I was able to get rid of this annoying and persistent message, at least for now, on both my iPad and iPhone without actually having to delete and re-establish the entire account. Apart from upgrading to 14.1 (which by all accounts isn’t the fix) all I did was under Settings -> Mail -> Accounts toggle the Mail button off and back on again for the offending account. I also accessed the Advanced Settings by clicking on the account email from that same screen and then toggled SSL off and on again while Mail was on. Hasn’t happened again on either device since I did that yesterday afternoon. Can’t say for sure which of these steps actually fixed it though. Good luck to all with fixing this, as it really gets in the way of using your device.

Ok so I think I figured this out. Was so frustrating. Go to your email information in settings. (Where you can change your password etc) setting-mail-accounts-then pick your email provider and continue on to where you can change your account info.

I found that my Host name was changed to imap-mail.outlook.com. So I changed it to what it’s supposed to be for my Hotmail. Which was smtp.live.com.

if you don’t know what your host name is supposed to be then just Google it. That’s how I found out my Hotmail host name. It stopped for now. Hope it stays that way. Good luck!!

Not necessary.... try this....

Ok so I think I figured this out. Was so frustrating. Go to your email information in settings. (Where you can change your password etc) setting-mail-accounts-then pick your email provider and continue on to where you can change your account info. 

I found that my Host name was changed to imap-mail.outlook.com. So I changed it to what it’s supposed to be for my Hotmail. Which was smtp.live.com. 

if you don’t know what your host name is supposed to be then just Google it. That’s how I found out my Hotmail host name. It stopped for now. Hope it stays that way. Good luck!!

I was excited to see that my setting was what you stated and I made the change. I made the change but it keeps changing back.

Did you first delete your account and insert the host name when you set it up?

Problem was resolved for me by following this info below in italics.

Copied and pasted from FaKre's post:

In my case the problem was, that the new certificate was only issued for outlook.com but I had „imap-mail.outlook.com“ set as incoming mail server.

Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts

select your Microsoft email Account.

then check Account > Host Name

unter INCOMING MAIL SERVER

and change it to outlook.com and save the change.

(On my phone it actually was "Go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Mail",... it worked great!)

After deleting Outlook mail and reinstalling, I selected Microsoft Exchange for email type. It had been set at Outlook email and thought I would try this. By selecting Exchange it preset server to “eas.outlook.com”

it took hours, but the error message popped up.

Still not fixed. So, I am going to try this. I edited server name to “Outlook.com”

On iphone, hotmail account would receive but not send out after the latest crap mandatory iphone update to ios 14.1. Everything got hung up in the Outbox.

I changed the settings (in phone's Settings/ Mail section for the hotmail account) to:

Incoming Mail Server Host Name: imap-mail.outlook.com

Outgoing Mail Server: I selected SMTP and entered: "smtp-mail.outlook.com"

So far so good. I hope this helps someone.

Odd... I got this behavior at about the same time too and didn't change anything on my phone... If it's affecting multiple people it could be some change on a carrier's side or the mail provider's side that caused the issue (my error was for pop3.live.com and I'm using AT&T)

Here is the real story. I have direct tv(att) and changed my password in the middle of this bitmap crap. What occurred is ATT/Google Yahoo got together and changed the coding for login. If you’re ATT Email or accounts when through outlook they were prevented. You have to use a Yahoo/Google or outlook new app to get your emails. The older system that came with IPad phone or an android device will reject the login. And that capitalism for you. Now you know why they tried to take GOOGLE to court for monopolies. Now will APPLE retaliate?

The problem must not be Outlook. I don’t have Outlook on my phone! I spent all last weekend on phone with Apple support. They have no idea, but the pop up message did stop... until today. It started again this day- same message about Outlook server identity and certificate.

This worked for me (at least so far!). It’s misleading because the prompt references outlook so I thought that was my offending account. But I looked under each of my email accounts as you note above and it was my msn account. I made the change. The system changed it back. I made it again and it kept it. I then turned the phone on and off snd checked and it has kept the change and no messages so far. Hopefully that sticks! Such an annoying message. Thank you!