Mail not working on iPhone after iOS 18 Update

My problem is a little different. I can receive mail bug cannot send it. It says my password is incorrect even if I reenter it.

i have restarted the app, reentered all the settings anc password, restarthe phone, nothing works.

Any ideas?

rjsqxxx wrote:

Sorry but I have to laugh when people think that saying the problem is not happening for “most people” is the same as fixing a problem. How is that at all useful is beyond me.

It's useful because it informs how you troubleshoot things. If a problem affects everyone or even a majority, it makes sense to consider that it's a bug. If it affects only a small number, it may be far more productive to figure out things you can do yourself or to contact Apple. Assuming that it's "the upgrade" tends to result in people saying they are going to wait for an upgrade to fix it and being very unhappy that they have to live with a problem.

Clearly this version of mail has significant problems or there would not be a thread that has continued for months.

There are threads that have continued for months about lots of things that aren't major problems if by major, you mean affecting a lot of people. For the people who are affected by this problem, it's major regardless of how many people are affected.

What I am suggesting is that only Apple knows what they did to mail in IOS 18. Therefore it’s up to them to work with ISP to resolve whatever is wrong. One suggestion is that if they are using some aspect of SNMP/IMAP protocol that did not use in IOS 17 they could provide an option to fall back to how IOS 17 worked while they work out the incompatibility. It could very well be an ISP server issue.

All you have is speculation. But, if you want to sit around being angry and waiting for some possible future upgrade to fix things, by all means, do that.

Yes. This is the sort of thing that is useful. If there are users with access to email servers who can trace the problem that could get to the root cause of the issue.

i can not do anything in that regard. I am a retired IT operating systems engineer but no longer have access to an email servers. I certainly am not setting up one at home.

the problem needs to be debugged. Continuing to say things like only a small number of users is effected is likely both untrue and not helpful.

In my case it is definitely a certificate issue. The IMAP (Dovecot) cert is a public trusted cert and is installed as a profile in the device, along with the intermediate and CA certs (CA is trusted).

Calling the IMAP connection from an external (WAN) connection using the domain (as in the cert) works fine.

Calling the IMAP connection from within the LAN (using an IP address on the LAN) results in a certificate error.

This happens on iOS 18. It works fine on iOS 17.

I cannot seem to find a way to explicitly allow trust of the IMAP certificate when used with an IP address rather than the cert domain.

For me, so far the 18.3 update appears to have fixed my IMAP problem with Apple Mail. All mail folder contents and attachments are now fetched right away instead of locking up for some considerable time, as was the case previously. I did the update to 18.3 but did not open Mail for several hours, to find it working fine. So far.

I use a Dovecot IMAP server on my NAS, Mail accesses it via LAN IP address via a non-secure connection, if that makes any difference.

Knowing what I was likely to be letting myself in for, I decided not to update my phone but update ipad for a test.

I run my own mail server with a self signed SSL certificate.

Updated to iPadOS18.3

Deleted Mail account.

Set up Mail account with working settings from iPhone on iOS 17.7.2

I was asked to review details and trust for my certificates which I did.

Opened Mail app, all emails visible and readable.

Replied successfully.

As soon as Mail app checked for new mail I got:

The mail server X is not responding. Verify that you have entered the correct account info in Mail settings

Unable to create a secure connection to the server (“bad certificate format@ -9,808)

Set up outlook connection to

my account without issue!

We tried annelle204's solution (and multiple similar iterations) on all of our iOS18 updated phones and this did not work.

It's not always the iOS update's fault!  Many things can cause phone problems.  If you tell people you think it's an iOS update, it might make it harder to fix or find a solution for the real issue.

Remember, the right question often leads to the solution! Please look in the right direction.

iOS updates aim to enhance user experience, boost security, and fix bugs rather than disrupt core features. The majority of the issues after updates might stem from underlying, unmentioned factors. Updates won't typically alter personal data but may refine settings or features. Backup before major updates for safety. Review Apple's update details and backup advice for a smooth process.

Kindly consider checking your settings and addressing any device issues before attributing the issue to external factors. This could be a pure coincidence that the iOS update affected the iPhone functions.

Before initiating a standard iOS update, it's advisable to create a backup. Have you completed this step? If yes, proceed with the restoration from the backup.

See what each update does: iOS 18, About iOS 17 Updates, About iOS 16 Updates, About iOS 15 Updates, About iOS 14 Updates, About iOS 13 Updates, About iOS 12 Updates, and so on...

Dtlwssm_2022 wrote:

AGAIN! Maybe the software people should go back to testing their software before making so many people’s computers useless, until they’re ready to fix it. No customer service here.

I’d suggest logging the details of this error with Apple or with Apple Support, including the errant folder names and the IMAP server identity and version, as IMAP is less than completely standard.

EXACTLY the same result for me on my iPad and on my M2 Mac Mini, after updating both.

I don't know if this will help anyone, but this is what happens when I try to send a message from the affected IMAP email account. (Oddly enough, I can receive messages, but cannot forward them, reply to them or create a new message to send.)

1. I get an error message saying: Cannot send message using the server ____. The SMTP connection to server _____ failed.
2. When I go to SMTP connection details, I get this: Trying to log in to this SMTP account failed. Verify that the username and password are correct. Also verify that the server supports MD5 Challenge-Response authentication. If it does not, choose an appropriate authentication setting in the Server Settings tab of the Account preferences.
3. So, I called my local ISP and talked to tech support. They told me to change the SMTP setting from MD5 Challenge-Response to Password. I did that, but when I tried to save my changes I got this...
4. I verified that the account name and password were indeed accurate. But, they would not be accepted. This exact process happened on my iPad and Mac Mini. So, I am stymied for now. Got to think this is an Apple issue. The local ISP tech guy said they had received a lot of calls from their customers with Apple products.

Here's an odd thing. Draw your own conclusions.

There was a related discussion that didn't have a great signal to noise ratio, but still had a lot of useful information. It was observed to have been closed on January 5, 2025. This is what it says up top:

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Guess what the date of the last message was? January 4, 2025.

In fact, there were multiple messages each prior day in January, including an active discussion among several using dovecot as IMAP server, who were discussing and implementing an effective workaround.

Everything was working fine for me until this past Friday. Now NONE OF MY IMAP ACCOUNTS CONNECT within the MAIL app!!

I am not able to access my IMAP accounts now on the following:

1. iPhone 15 Pro Max - iOS 18.0.1 (only works when I close the app and restart it)
2. 2015 MacBook Pro Big Sur 11.07.10 - was working fine until today, Nov 4, 2024
3. 2023 MacBook Pro that is 3 days old running Sequoia 15.1 - zero connects

It continually tells me on my MacBooks that it cannot access the servers to verify.

On iPhone I get error POSIX 60, close the app, restart and it will access accounts until the error pops up again.

I have called and reported all of these issues and totaled close to 6 hours with senior support doing EVERY troubleshooting step possible. I now have an open case that shows all of these issues. I would encourage others to do the same, as that is the only way the engineers are going to look at the software. I was told by support that they do not check this forum for issues.

This is what worked when i got the message "cannot get mail":

Steps to Update Your Email Password:

1. Go to: Settings > Apps > Mail.
2. Select: Mail Accounts.
3. Choose the account that requires a password update.
4. Toggle off the Mail button.
5. When prompted, enter the new password.
6. Toggle the Mail button back on (if needed) to ensure the mailbox reappears in the app.

Apple1138 wrote:

Here is a temporary fix…scroll down to incoming settings and turn off the SSL, that’s it. Mail flowed.

It goes against the whole idea of SSL …

Bad, bad idea.

1. Like many ideas floated here, it may have worked for you or a few other people, but it is not a fix. Indeed, many email servers will not connect if SSL is turned off, so for many, it is the opposite of a fix.
2. You omitted the reason why SSL is used. It encrypts your communication with your mail server, so that your data is not transmitted as readable text. Depending on your configuration, turning off SSL will also transmit your password as plain text. SSL is a hugely important security measure.

This is an unsafe, and likely ineffective, workaround.

So far, the only sure workaround is using an alternative email client until this mess is fixed.

I've got incoming mail to work by reverting to NOT using SSL on the incoming server in Account Settings > Advanced > Incoming Server:

• toggle Use SSL to off
• serverport will revert to 143

Tap out of the settings app.

Force Quit and restart the Mail App