Charter email still not working with apple mail. Any suggestions?

I just started having trouble with Spectrum mail (sending and receiving) about a week ago on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad using Apple Mail. It seems Spectrum/Charter updated server names and finally made it mandatory for all users. Spectrum customer support was completely unhelpful aside from sending me emails and directing me to webpages with server settings that were incomplete. Finally, I got it to work on all my devices. The key seemed to be to delete the Spectrum email account from my Apple mail on each device. Then, to set it up from scratch one by one. When I just tried to do an update to incoming server host name, I was able to update. When I tried to update the outgoing server host name, it just kept trying to verify - but never succeeded. Deleting the Spectrum mail account and starting over worked for me.

Email Settings

• Username: Your full Spectrum email address
• Password: Your Spectrum email password
• SSL: On
• Protocol: IMAP
• Incoming Email Server: mobile.charter.net
• Port: 993
• Outgoing Email Server: mobile.charter.net
• Enter your User Name and Password even though it may say optional when in Outgoing Email Server settings
• Set Authentication to Password
• Port: 587

It's hard to understand how on earth something like this can continue to be an unresolved issue for so long with so many apple users noting it and explaining it as many different ways as possible. Very frustrating!

Here's what charter blames apple and visa versa means......

Charter Spectrum (if you engage them in discussion about this) will tell you Apple Mail is a third party app, which it is in respect to Charter, and charter doesn't know why charter mail periodically doesn't work or work properly using Apple Mail - charter has no crossover knowledge/ awareness what happens when an Apple Mail user tries to load charter mail in to that app. And of course Apple has no crossover knowledge or responsibility to know why charter mail doesn't work well with the Apple Mail app properly sll the time.

2024 UPDATE > Charter support is pretty clueless regarding apple mail, they don't care.

Apple support doesn't really know or want to know anything about charter, no surprise there.

If you don't have the technical patience to work around/ through this issue, you may as well give up and use a new email account other than charter.... the issue comes & goes and then comes back & goes again!

And of course charter has webmail system everyone can use directly rather then inside apple mail.

The problem is charter webmail & apple mail don't work well together and likely never will. After batting this around off & on for about 5 years, I notice it's especially disfunctional (or temporarily broken) right after charter does a periodic system update, but nothing bad really ever happens when apple updates its system. My conclusion is its clearly a charter issue, which causes some kind of recognition/ communication glitch that seems to last awhile.

I've solved the problem most quickly and the same way every time it happens by simply deleting any charter email accounts from apple mail (on every apple device - imac, ipad, iphone), then restarting the apple devices and setting up all the same charter email accounts in apple mail again, always as imap accounts and using incoming/outgoing server designations <mobile.charter.net>. I also suspect that since charter still has options for both pop & imap accounts (for users that don't know why they want them) this creates another possible technical glitch that may contribute to this issue although I don't understand why.

Anyway.... my final answer is: delete charter email accounts from apple mail, restart. set same accounts back up, restart.... may have to repeat process a few times until it works.... its stubborn, but normally gives up & works again.

I was surprised to read this comment to find out that this has been going on for years.

I have just had the same situation happen (12/2023) and they gave me the same answer. They said I should just use Spectrum Web Mail. Charter/Spectrum will no longer allow 3rd party apps (like Outlook or Apple Mail) to send email using charter/spectrum.net outbound (SMTP) email servers.

I may try delete and re-add the charter account. Not feeling optimistic. Looks like it is about time is start the transition away from charter.net as my primary email address. Not looking forward to that process.

You can always use Charter's site and login to run email. Or their app if one is offered.

Regardless of finger pointing, developers are responsible for making their apps work with macOS, not the other way around.

I'd delete the account and recreate it from scratch. If that din't work, I'd move to a different mail service. Irksome maybe, but it settled Comcast's hash once and for all.

karlm01 wrote:

I can receive email but not send. Charter blames apple and says it does not support 3rd party apps, Apple blames charter and says charter is not allowing me to send. I have tried the recommended Charter settings mobile.charter.net, but these do not work. I have tired my old setting of mail.charter.net and this seems to work if I am on my home wifi network, but when I leave home , it will not send. This has been going on for 3 years now and neither apple or charter support can figure it out?

I only use webmail for Charter/Spectrum. It makes it a lot less stressful.

karlm01 wrote:

Wait, you mean delete the charter account, and set up a new one with charter?

I think what was suggested was to remove the failing account from Mail then add it back again with the correct configuration for your email account.

FYI to BobTheFisherman

Here's what 'charter blames apple' and visa versa means......

Charter Spectrum (if you engage them in discussion about this) will tell you Apple Mail is a third party app, which it is in respect to Charter, and charter doesn't know why charter mail periodically doesn't work or work properly using Apple Mail - charter has no crossover knowledge/ awareness what happens when an Apple Mail user tries to load charter mail in to that app. And of course Apple has no crossover knowledge or responsibility to know why charter mail doesn't work well with the Apple Mail app properly sll the time.

As posted previously here, so you don't have to look for it...

2024 UPDATE > Charter support is pretty clueless regarding apple mail, they don't care.

Apple support doesn't really know or want to know anything about charter, no surprise there.

If you don't have the technical patience to work around/ through this issue, you may as well give up and use a new email account other than charter.... the issue comes & goes and then comes back & goes again!

And of course charter has webmail system everyone can use directly rather then inside apple mail.

The problem is charter webmail & apple mail don't work well together and likely never will. After batting this around off & on for about 5 years, I notice it's especially disfunctional (or temporarily broken) right after charter does a periodic system update, but nothing bad really ever happens when apple updates its system. My conclusion is its clearly a charter issue, which causes some kind of recognition/ communication glitch that seems to last awhile.

I've solved the problem most quickly and the same way every time it happens by simply deleting any charter email accounts from apple mail (on every apple device - imac, ipad, iphone), then restarting the apple devices and setting up all the same charter email accounts in apple mail again, always as imap accounts and using incoming/outgoing server designations <mobile.charter.net>. I also suspect that since charter still has options for both pop & imap accounts (for users that don't know why they want them) this creates another possible technical glitch that may contribute to this issue although I don't understand why.

Anyway.... my final answer is: delete charter email accounts from apple mail, restart. set same accounts back up, restart.... may have to repeat process a few times until it works.... its stubborn, but normally gives up & works again.

A solution was written here in response to problems setting up Complex mail services such as Google mail, Yahoo, and AOL that open a Safari Browser window half way through the account setup process on the Mac. I will post below because the suggestion that using Cellular instead of built-in Wi-fi suggests in MIGHT have some relevance. But it may not apply at all.

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<< Can’t configure complex emails setups in Sonoma >>

The issue appears to be Safari's "advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection". Go to Safari's Settings -> Advanced and uncheck "Use advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection".

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255361223?answerId=260028169022&sortBy=oldest_first#260028169022

Thanks bosmacs!

with mail running, choose Connection Doctor off the Window menu. click on the red light for Charter email account incoming (IMAP).

you get a pane that looks like this older one. checkbox to manage automatically under the other settings

...

karlm01 wrote:

ok, thank you. Tried that multiple times. Doesn't work.

Maybe if you told us what error results when you try to send an email we could better advise you. If the configuration for the account is correct it should work. I don't know what you mean by Charter blames Apple saying Apple does not support third party apps. Mail is an Apple app. There is no third party app involved. It should work as proven when you said your wife's charter email account works.

Did you install some third party app that claims to protect, manage, boost performance etc? if so, remove this app. Try booting in safe mode to see if your email then works.